IXPE Mission

14 Dec 2021 IXPE Mission

IXPE Mission- Today Current Affairs

• Recently ‘National Aeronautics and Space Administration’ (NASA) launched a new mission named ‘Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer’ (IXPE).

Introduction:

• The IXPE Observatory is a joint effort of NASA and the Italian Space Agency.
• The most extreme and mysterious objects in the universe supernova remnants, supermassive black holes and dozens of other high-energy objects.
• The primary duration of this mission is two years and its observatory will be located at an altitude of 600 km, orbiting around the Earth’s equator.
• It is expected to study about 40 celestial objects in the first year.
• It will complement other X-ray telescopes such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the X-ray Observatory of the European Space Agency, XMM-Newton.

Importance:

• It will help in observing polarized X-rays from neutron stars and supermassive black holes. By measuring the polarization of these X-rays, we can study what the source of light is and understand the geometry and inner workings of the light source.
• It will help scientists to understand how black holes rotate and their status in the past.
• It will help to find out why pulsars are so bright in X-rays.
• It will help to learn what powers energetic particles ejected from the vicinity of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

Other recent NASA missions: The Hindu Analysis

• Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
• Mission Lucy (Jupiter Trojan Asteroid).
• Near Earth Asteroid Scout.

Supernova

• Supernova refers to a fierce and bright explosion with the end of a massive star in space.

Black Hole

• Black holes are such holes present in space where the force of gravity is so high that even light cannot pass through here. The gravity is so great that matter gets compressed in a small space.
• Gravitational waves are created when two black holes orbit each other and merge.

Neutron Stars

• Neutron stars comprise one of the possible end-points of high mass stars.
• Once the core of the star burns completely into iron, energy production stops and the core rapidly collapses, compressing electrons and protons together to form neutrons and neutrinos.
• A star supported by neutron degeneracy pressure is known as a ‘neutron star’, which is known as a pulsar if its magnetic field is favorably aligned with its spin axis.

In this article we mention all information about IXPE Mission The Hindu Analysis.

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