Coroners need hours in crime scenes to collect information about homicides. However, the high-resolution Microcalorimeter X-ray Imaging, or Micro-X, developed by the Northwestern University and funded by the NASA, headed on a five-minute “astronomical forensic mission” to collect evidence on the death of a star.
The mission launched on August 21, on a “sounding rocket” from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. According to NASA’s official website, the mission’s target of study is some 11,000 light-years away from Earth, where sits a massive bubble of radiant material known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a “supernova” remnant in the Cassiopeia constellation.
