NASA’s new IXPE mission opens your eyes and is ready for discovery!

Artist’s representation of IXPE in Earth’s orbit. credit: NASA

Cassiopeia supernova remnant. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optics: NASA/STScI

IXPE launched a Falcon 9 rocket on December 9 to an orbit 370 miles (600 km) above the equator. The observatory’s electrode, which provides the distance needed to focus the X-rays on its detectors, was successfully deployed on December 15. The IXPE team spent the next three weeks checking the observatory’s ability to maneuver, point and align the telescopes.

During these tests, the team aimed IXPE at two bright targets for calibration: 1ES 1959 + 650, a galactic core powered by a black hole with jets launched into space; The SMC X-1, a rotating dead star, or

pulsar

First observed at radio frequencies, a pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits regular pulses of radiation. Astronomers developed three categories for pulsars: accretion-powered pulsars, rotation-powered pulsars, and nuclear-powered pulsars; and have since observed them at X-ray, optical, and gamma-ray energies.

“>pulsar. The brightness of these two sources allowed the IXPE team to easily see where the X-rays fall on the polarization-sensitive IXPE detectors and make small adjustments to the telescope’s alignment.

What’s next for IXPE?

On January 11, IXPE began observing its first official scientific target – Cassiopeia A, or Cas A – the remnant of a massive star that erupted into a supernova regarding 350 years ago in our country.

Milky Way

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth, and is named for its appearance from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy that contains an estimated 100-400 billion stars and has a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years.

“>Milky Way galaxy. Supernovas are filled with magnetic energy and accelerate particles to near-light speeds, making them laboratories for studying the extreme physics of space.

IXPE will provide details regarding the magnetic field structure of Cas A that cannot be observed otherwise. By studying the polarization of X-rays, scientists can determine the detailed structure of its magnetic field and the locations where these particles pick up velocity.

Case A notes from IXPE will last regarding three weeks.

“Measuring X-ray polarizations is not easy,” Weisskov said. “You have to collect a lot of light, and the unpolarized light acts as background noise. It may take some time for the polarized signal to be detected.

Learn more regarding the IXPE mission

IXPE transmits scientific data several times a day to a ground station operated by the Italian Space Agency in Malindi, Kenya. Data flows from the Malindi station to the IXPE mission operations center to the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), and then to the IXPE Science Operations Center at NASA Marshall for processing and analysis. The science data for IXPE will be publicly available at the High Energy Astrophysical Sciences Research Center at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Marshall’s science operations team also coordinates with the mission operations team at LASP to plan scientific observations. The mission plans to monitor more than 30 planned targets in its first year. The mission will study distant supermassive black holes with jets of energetic particles illuminating their host galaxies. IXPE will also examine the warped spacetime around stellar-mass black holes and measure their spins. Other planned targets include various types of neutron stars, such as pulsars and magnetars. The science team also devoted regarding a month to observing other interesting things that might appear in the sky or light up unexpectedly.

IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency with scientific partners and collaborators in 12 countries. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations.