Daily Camera
September 18, 2000

We all have been awed by the magicalwonders of the orbiting Hubble and Chandra X-ray telescopes and what they can see in outer space. But according to scientists at the University of Colorado, "You ain't seen nothing yet."

Once again CU has given the world a discovery that could revolutionize what is known about the mysteries of outer space, a discovery that Colorado citizens ought to be busting their buttons about.

A team of CU researchers and a NASA scientist has designed an X-ray telescope so powerful that it will have three-million times greater magnification and 300,000 times greater resolution than the Hubble and Chandra.

How powerful is that? According to the research team's leader, CU Professor Webster Cash, it’s strong enough "to count the hairs on an astronaut’s head while she stands on the moon." The power of the Chandra, for example, is equivalent to that of being able to see a stop sign from 12 miles away. This telescope, called the MAXIM (for Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission) could see the same stop sign from 12 million miles away.

Cash and two fellow researchers, Ann Shipley and Steve Osterman, believe that the MAXIM will be a major tool in being able to see inside of black holes and examine other space oddities that have been out of range forever. The MAXIM utilizes dozens of flat mirrors, rather than curved reflectors, which means greater accuracy and precision.

Much needs to be done before MAXIM will be shot into space by NASA in about 10 years. Building, testing and launching the MAXIM will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, money that CU must raise through research grants and possibly corporate partnerships.

For the moment, let Boulder and the rest of Colorado bask in the glory of what CU has accomplished, demonstrating once again its prominence as one of the nation's top research universities.