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Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency this week has launched a new space observatory successfully, designed to study black holes, galaxy clusters and the dying stars. The new X-ray Astronomy Satellite, also known as ASTRO-H, will perceive X-rays over 10 times weaker than its earlier versio, Suzaku.

The new satellite, ASTRO-H, was launched on H-IIA, Japanese launch vehicle, from Tanegashima Launch Center on 17^th February at 3:45 am EST. Within a few hours of its launch, the satellite positioned its solar arrays and was operating routinely. Traditionally, astronomy satellites of Japan are given a temporary name before they are launched into the space and then renamed again after they go into orbit. Once JAXA announced the successful launch of ASTRO-H, it was renamed to Hitomi, meaning pupil of the eye in Japanese, says Microcap Magazine

Hitomi has been designed to examine celestial bodies that release X-rays, exceptionally high energy radiation that are created by high-energy situations like neutron stars, black holes, supernova explosions and galaxy clusters. Hitmoni is powered by 4 co-aligned X-ray telescopes that can detect between 300 electron volts (eV) and 600,000 eV.

After its launch, Hitomi becomes the sixth JAXA x-ray astronomy satellites in its series. The technology and highly sophisticated instruments make Hitomi take high-resolution images of the Universe in an X-ray range.

This astronomy satellite is a project that is led by JAXA along with contributions from NASA, Europe and Canada. In exchange for their contributions, the space agencies can contend with one another for a certain period of observational time on Hitomi. With the improvement in technology, the scientists have access to the universe in unusual ways. Thanks to Hitomi, the astronomers will be able to see the universe from an X-ray perspective with high resolution and precision, as reported by Tech Crunch