Company Led by Raja Part of Satellite Launch

Collaborated with NASA on International Space Mission

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., (March 8, 2016) — A unit of Sivananthan Laboratories, whose president is Raja Krishnamoorthi, developed cutting edge technology as part of an international mission successfully launched last month into outer space as part of ASTRO-H (also known as Hitomi), an X-ray astronomy satellite.

“We are extremely proud of the outstanding team that worked hard to develop this state-of-the-art technology,” Raja said. “Our team congratulates NASA and the entire international mission on the successful launch, and we look forward to the new view of our universe that ASTRO-H will share with the world. This is a great example of a Chicago-area high-tech company using incredible local talent to do extraordinary things.”

Raja’s team at the company developed breakthrough imaging technology for ASTRO-H’s state-of-the-art Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), an instrument that measures the energy of soft X-rays to see galaxies, black holes and other astronomical phenomena. The unique process created and used by scientists to build the HgTe calorimeter tiles, a key component of the detector in the SXS, enables unprecedented energy resolution. This innovation is a major contribution to the mission, which is designed to significantly increase existing capabilities for space observation.

ASTRO-H is the sixth X-ray satellite, following Suzaku, which operated from 2005 to 2015. It has far greater sensitivity and can observe X-rays more than 10 times fainter than its predecessor.

For more information about this mission, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hitomi
http://astro-h.isas.jaxa.jp/en/
http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/astro_h/

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