The Chandra telescope system consists of four pairs of mirrors and their support structure.
X-ray telescopes must be very different from optical telescopes. Because of their high-energy, X-ray photons penetrate into a mirror in much the same way that bullets slam into a wall. Likewise, just as bullets ricochet when they hit a wall at a grazing angle, so too will X-rays ricochet off mirrors.
The mirrors have to be exquisitely shaped and aligned nearly parallel to incoming X-rays. Thus they look more like glass barrels than the familiar dish shape of optical telescopes. They are the smoothest and cleanest mirrors ever made.
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