Chandra Newsletter

Contents

Issue 37 - Spring 2026

All CXC News Issues

Mission Planning Update

Scott Randall, Daniel Castro, Tara Dowd, Ewan O'Sullivan, Joshua Robbins, Iris Wang, and Joshua Wing

The Mission Planning Team is tasked with developing a schedule for the mission that ensures a maximum scientific return while simultaneously ensuring the health and safety of the spacecraft. Over the lifetime of the Chandra mission, the Mission Planning Team has dealt with increased complexity and constraints in that task. In this article, Scott Randall and the team provide an update on some of the procedures, tools, and software that have been developed and implemented and highlight the current state of the mission's benchmarks.

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Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) Manager's Report

Mark Weber

CXC Manager Mark Weber provides an update on the past year of operations at the Chandra X-ray Center, including the high marks received from the senior review, the status of the observatory, and awards received by CXC scientists.

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Chandra's Distributed Peer Review

Rodolfo Montez Jr. and the Chandra Director's Office

This past year, the Chandra Peer Review had a significant change: the introduction of a distributed peer review (DPR) model. Rodolfo Montez Jr. and the Chandra Director's Office provide an update on DPR—why the change was made, how it was implemented, and what the future has in store for the new system.

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Keeping Chandra Analysis on the Cutting Edge: CIAO 4.18—Advances, Updates, and a Farewell

Antonella Fruscione and the Chandra SDS Group

The Science Data Systems team highlights some new features in the recent release of Chandra software—including support for 8-byte integers and simpler installation options for macOS—that exemplify the team's ongoing practical, behind-the-scenes work to streamline workflows and reduce analysis problems. This update also marks the departure of long-time group leader Jonathan McDowell, whose decades of contributions to the SDS team are recognized.

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Chandra Source Catalog

Ian N. Evans for the Chandra Source Catalog team

Ian Evans provides an update on the continuing development of the Chandra Source Catalog. Highlights include a new minor release, publication of a new refereed paper describing the catalog and its algorithms, and the development of the next iteration of the catalog, CSC 2.2.

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Ensuring the Scientific Integrity of the Chandra Data Archive: The Role of Archival Reprocessings

Raffaele D'Abrusco on behalf of the DPAOps team

The Chandra archive is not a static collection of past observations but is rather a constantly-evolving resource for the X-ray astronomy community. To ensure the archive is as useful as possible, the DPAOps team will undertake large-scale reprocessing updates of archival data. In this article, Raffaele D'Abrusco explains the process and reasoning behind these updates, including the nearly-complete Repro V.

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Beyond the Image: Emerging Technologies & Chandra

Kimberly Arcand, Megan Watzke

As astrophysical datasets grow in scale, complexity, and dimensionality, so too must the tools we use to explore, interpret, and share them. At the Chandra X-ray Center, emerging technologies are being actively explored not only to support scientific discovery, but also to expand how people access and engage with high-energy astrophysics. Recent projects in artificial intelligence, spatial sonification, and extended reality highlight new ways of making the invisible universe more interpretable, inclusive, and meaningful for different audiences.

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The CXC and the SAO Summer Astronomy Intern Program

Jonathan McDowell

As he retires from the CXC, long-time director of the SAO summer intern program Jonathan McDowell reflects on the past three decades of training the next generation of scientists in the halls of the CfA.

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Chandra's Dynamic Universe

Amruta Jaodand

Chandra remains a critical observatory for the study of time domain and transient phenomena. From nearby stars to distant black holes, the power of Chandra's high angular and spectral resolutions have enabled more than two decades of breakthroughs. This summer, the Chandra X-ray Center will be hosting a science workshop on Chandra's Dynamic Universe; further information on this exciting event can be found within.

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The Chandra Newsletter is edited by Thomas Connor, with editorial assistance and layout by Tara Gokas. We welcome contributions from readers. Comments on the newsletter should be sent to: chandranews@cfa.harvard.edu.