Q&A: Chandra Mission

Q:
I was wondering if there were any X-ray pictures taken of Earth?

A:
Chandra took a brief look at the Earth in February last year and is right now in the process of taking a longer observation. Please check in with the Chandra web site (http://chandra.harvard.edu/) over the next few months since we will likely be posting an X-ray image of the Earth here when it becomes available.

We've checked the data archives of another X-ray telescope, XMM-Newton, and it seems that it has not observed the Earth. However, the small optical telescope on board the XMM-Newton took an image of the telescope with the Earth behind it that you may find interesting: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/0002/20xmmseesearth/

But for X-ray images of Earth, keep checking the Chandra pages in the upcoming months or sign up for our free Chandra newsletter for notification of releases

Related question: http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/faq/chandra/chandra-33.html