NASA’s newest X-ray eyes are open and
ready for discovery!
Having spent just over a month in space, the Imaging
X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is working and already zeroing in on some of
the hottest, most energetic objects in the universe.
A joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space
Agency, IXPE is the first space observatory dedicated to studying the
polarization of X-rays coming from objects like exploded stars and black holes.
Polarization describes how the X-ray light is oriented as it travels through
space.
“The start of IXPE’s science observations marks a new
chapter for X-ray astronomy,” said Martin Weisskopf, the mission’s principal
investigator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
“One thing is certain: we can expect the unexpected.”
IXPE launched Dec. 9 on a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit
370 miles (600 kilometers) above Earth’s equator. The observatory’s boom, which
provides the distance needed to focus X-rays onto its detectors, was deployed
successfully on Dec. 15. The IXPE team spent the next three weeks checking out
the observatory’s maneuvering and pointing abilities and aligning the
telescopes.
Over the course of these tests, the team pointed IXPE
at two bright calibration targets: 1ES 1959+650, a black-hole-powered galaxy
core with jets shooting into space; and SMC X-1, a spinning dead star, or
pulsar. The brightness of these two sources made it easy for the IXPE team to
see where X-rays are falling on IXPE’s polarization-sensitive detectors and
make small adjustments to the telescopes’ alignment.
What’s Next for IXPE?
On Jan. 11, IXPE began observing its first official
scientific target – Cassiopeia A, or Cas A – the remains of a massive star that
blew itself apart in a supernova around 350 years ago in our own Milky Way
galaxy. Supernovae are filled with magnetic energy and accelerate particles to
near light-speed, making them laboratories for studying extreme physics in
space.
IXPE will provide details about Cas A’s magnetic field
structure that can’t be observed in other ways. By studying the X-ray
polarization, scientists can work out the detailed structure of its magnetic
field and the sites where these particles pick up speed.
IXPE’s observations of Cas A will last about three
weeks.
“Measuring X-ray polarization is not easy,” said
Weisskopf. “You have to collect a lot of light, and the unpolarized light acts
like background noise. It can take a while to detect a polarized signal.”
More about the IXPE
Mission
IXPE transmits scientific data several times a day to
a ground station operated by the Italian Space Agency in Malindi, Kenya. The
data flows from the Malindi station to IXPE’s Mission Operations Center at the
University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
(LASP) and then to IXPE’s Science Operations Center at NASA Marshall for processing
and analysis. IXPE’s scientific data will be publicly available from the High
Energy Astrophysics Science Research Center at the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The Marshall science operations team also coordinates
with mission operations team at LASP to schedule science observations. The
mission plans to observe more than 30 planned targets during its first year.
The mission will study distant supermassive black holes with energetic particle
jets that light up their host galaxies. IXPE will also probe the twisted
space-time around stellar-mass black holes and measure their spin. Other
planned targets include different types of neutron stars, such as pulsars and
magnetars. The science team has also reserved about a month to observe other
interesting objects that may appear in the sky or brighten unexpectedly.
IXPE is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian
Space Agency with partners and science collaborators in 12 countries. Ball
Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft
operations.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ixpe/news/nasa-s-new-ixpe-mission-begins-science-operations.html
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