The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Harvey D Tananbaum

Center for Astrophysics

Senior Astrophysicist

Harvey D Tananbaum

htananbaum@cfa.harvard.edu

About

I began my professional career at American Science & Engineering, Inc. in 1968 and moved to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1973. In the 1970’s, I served as Project Scientist for the first satellite devoted to X-ray astronomy - UHURU, and as the Scientific Program Manager for the first X-ray telescope mission - the Einstein Observatory. In 1976, Riccardo Giacconi and I led the team which initiated the study and design of a large X-ray telescope that was launched 23 years later, in 1999, as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. I served as Director of the Chandra X-Ray Center from its inception in 1991 through April, 2014. The Chandra X-ray Center is responsible for operating the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, for supporting the broad community of scientists who observe with Chandra, and for disseminating Chandra science results to the public. Since 2014, I have continued my involvement with Chandra and have been a member of the team studying its potential successor - the Lynx X-ray Observatory. I also served as Associate Director leading SAO's High Energy Astrophysics Division from 1980 to 1991. My contributions to Chandra were recognized via the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1980, the NASA Public Service Award in 1988, and the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership in 2000. In 2005, I was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Yale University BA (1964); MIT PhD (1968)

Telescopes and Instruments

Einstein Observatory

NASA’s Einstein Observatory was the first X-ray space telescope designed to produce images of astronomical X-ray sources. The spacecraft operated from 1978 through 1981, providing important observations of pulsars, supernova remnants, supermassive black holes in other galaxies, and many more, paving the way for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray telescope was designed by researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

Chandra

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is NASA’s flagship X-ray observatory, providing essential data on everything from the environment surrounding newborn stars to the emissions from hot plasma inside galaxy clusters. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, manages Chandra’s day-to-day operations, providing spacecraft control, observation planning, and data processing for astronomers. Chandra is one of NASA’s orbiting Great Observatories, along with the Hubble.

Visit the Chandra Website

Lynx X-Ray Observatory

The Lynx X-ray Observatory is a proposed X-ray space telescope, designed to be the next generation following NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s upcoming Athena Telescope. This observatory will be able to take images of a larger area of the sky in X-ray light with better resolution than any existing telescope, allowing astronomers to study the first supermassive black holes, the hot gas surrounding galaxies as they evolve, and radiation from the earliest stars. Researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and other universities are presenting Lynx to NASA for consideration in the 2020 Decadal Survey, with a proposed launch date in the mid-2030s.

Visit the Lynx X-Ray Observatory Website

Uhuru

The Uhuru X-ray Explorer Satellite was the first spacecraft dedicated to X-ray astronomy. During its mission in the early 1970s, Uhuru mapped the X-ray sky. It provided the first observational evidence for black holes, revealed that galaxy clusters contain hot X-ray-emitting gas, and charted the behavior of neutron stars in binary systems. The observatory was named Uhuru, the Swahili word meaning “freedom”, in honor of Kenyan independence and because the rocket carrying the spacecraft was launched into orbit from a site off the coast of Kenya near Mombasa. The success of the Uhuru satellite led the way for all subsequent space telescopes, from the Einstein Observatory to NASA’s flagship Chandra X-ray Observatory.