JAKARTA – Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer NASA’s (IXPE) successfully launched into space aboard a SpaceX rocket, the Falcon 9. The mission will aim to study and measure the polarization of X-rays.
The mission, which will last for two years, is a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency. In addition, the IXPE mission also allowed NASA to look into the origins of X-ray light, a form of high-energy light produced during some of the most extreme celestial events such as supernova explosions.
According to a NASA report, the IXPE rover mission builds on work already done by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s flagship X-ray astronomy mission, which launched in 1999 and has imaged the remains of exploding stars, found black holes, and much more.
Quoted from The Verge, Friday, December 10, IXPE will provide more insight into the astrophysical phenomena Chandra has studied in the past. IXPE will start operating in January next year.
During the first year, IXPE will study about 40 celestial bodies with detailed follow-up observations in the second year. The IXPE mission consists of three identical telescopes containing mirrors that will collect X-rays coming from a celestial body, such as a supermassive black hole, and focus it onto a detector that can measure its polarization.
Polarized light is light whose vibrations are all aligned in one direction, unlike visible light from a light bulb, which spreads out in all directions. By studying its properties, astronomers can learn more about what kind of environment it originated in and passed through on its journey through the cosmos.
NASA says the mission will provide answers to questions such as how black holes rotate, whether the black hole at the center of our galaxy was actively eating the surrounding matter in the past, and why pulsars emit so much X-ray light.
The launch of IXPE is a huge win for NASA, and the agency will further launch the James Webb Telescope, NASA’s next big eye in the sky later this month.
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