• Question: What is the best monster that you have ever found with an x-ray???

    Asked by Jammy to Peter on 5 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Jay-greninja, emily, 258pnug25, Emily, Imogen.
    • Photo: Peter Boorman

      Peter Boorman answered on 5 Nov 2016:

      Hi Jammy,

      That is a brilliant question. I spent the past year using X-rays to be able to ‘see’ the extremely massive black hole monster, hidden behind huge layers of thick gas and dust. I was able to figure out that the monster is hidden behind a gas cloud roughly the same thickness as a very stormy thunder cloud.

      The reason X-rays are so useful to me is because they have so much more energy than normal light that you see with your eyes. The X-rays are so high in energy that they can push through all this dust and be detected by X-ray satellites in orbit above the Earth’s atmosphere. For this reason, although the monster’s normal light is hidden, I can still ‘see’ their X-rays. However, there are many monsters predicted to be so hidden that even high energy X-rays can’t reach us. My next challenge is the best way to ‘see’ these beasts!

      Peter

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