For more than half a century, scientists have sought to understand cosmic X-rays and what they reveal about our galaxy and the universe beyond it. As it turns out, lobsters can help astronomers do just that.
These crustaceans have specialized eyes that can sense motion in low-light environments. By mimicking their unique structure, scientists can build visual equipment, or optics, for missions outside of Earth’s orbit aiming to capture stray X-rays. In the future, this technique could broaden astronomer's view of the sky to detect astronomical events both near and far.
X-rays are emitted from celestial bodies that are extremely hot. Astronomers study them to learn more about black holes, galaxy clusters, stars that have exploded and other high-energy events that have long remained elusive. Going forward, the lobster eye-inspired technology may allow scientists to observe various X-ray sources over long periods of time and get a better sense of ...
