Jakarta – NASA’s newest X-ray eye is open and ready to make unexpected discoveries. Just about a month into space, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is up and running and ready to focus on some of the hottest and most energetic objects in the universe.
IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency. He became the first space observatory dedicated to studying the polarization of X-rays coming from objects such as exploding stars and black holes. Polarization describes how X-rays are oriented as they travel through space.
“The start of IXPE science observations marks a new chapter for X-ray astronomy,” said Martin Weisskopf, principal investigator for the IXPE mission at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “One thing is certain: we can expect unexpected discoveries.”
IXPE was launched into orbit 600 kilometers above Earth’s equator on a Falcon 9 rocket on December 9, 2021. The observatory mast, which provides the X-ray focal length, was successfully stretched last December 15.
The required focusing distance was four meters between the detector and the IXPE mirror, which was impossible to fit in the rocket carrying it, so the mast had to be folded down during launch.
The IXPE mission research team spent the next three weeks checking directional maneuverability and adjusting existing telescopes. Throughout the test, the team pointed the IXPE at two bright calibration targets: 1ES 1959+650, a black hole; and SMC X-1, a spinning dead star, or pulsar.
The brightness levels from the two sources made it easy for the team to see where the X-rays were falling on the polarization-sensitive IXPE detector and made only minor adjustments to the telescope’s position.
As a result, starting January 11, 2022, IXPE has observed its first official scientific target, Cassiopeia A (Cas A), the remains of a massive star that exploded in a supernova about 350 years ago in the Milky Way Galaxy. Supernovae are charged with magnetic energy and accelerate the motion of particles to near the speed of light, making them a laboratory for studying the extreme physics of outer space.
IXPE will provide details on the structure of the Cas A magnetic field which cannot be observed in any other way. By studying the polarization of X-rays, scientists can work out the detailed structure of its magnetic field and the sites where these particles accelerate.
IXPE’s observations of Cas A will last approximately three weeks. Then, the plan, he will observe more than 30 targets during his first year in space.
IXPE will transmit scientific data several times a day to a station on Earth operated by the Italian Space Agency in Malindi, Kenya. The data will be forwarded to the IXPE Mission Operations Center at the University of Colorado Boulder Space and Atmospheric Physics Laboratory (LASP).
After that to the IXPE Science Operations Center at NASA Marshall for processing and analysis. IXPE scientific data will be publicly available from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Research Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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