NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / Dana Berry
NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer Leaves Scientific ‘Treasure Trove’
3 May 2018, 14:00 UTC
NASA’s decommissioned Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on April 30. Orbiting for more than 22 years, the 6,700-pound satellite operated from 1996 to 2012, providing scientists with an unprecedented look into the extreme environments around neutron stars — also known as pulsars — and black holes.