NASA launches new X-ray mission to

study black holes and exploding stars

On Thursday morning, NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer

(IXPE) successfully launched into space on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The two-year mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, is
NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying and measuring X-ray
polarization.
The pioneering mission will allow 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 like supernova explosions and violent collisions. The
mission builds on the work done by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s
flagship X-ray astronomy mission, which launched in 1999 and has imaged
the remnants of exploded stars, discovered black holes, and more. The
IXPE will provide more insight into the astrophysical phenomena Chandra
has studied in the past.

The IXPE will begin operations in January, NASA reports. During its first
year, IXPE will study about 40 celestial objects with detailed follow-up
observations in its second year.

The IXPE mission consists of three identical telescopes containing mirrors

that will collect X-rays emanating from celestial objects, like supermassive
black holes, and focus them onto detectors that can measure their
polarization. Polarized light is light whose vibrations are all aligned in a
single direction, unlike the visible light from a lightbulb, which scatters in
every direction. By studying its properties, astronomers can learn more
about what sort of environment it came from and passed through on its
journey throughout the cosmos.

According to NASA, the mission will provide long-awaited answers to

questions like how black holes spin, whether the black hole at the center of
our galaxy was actively feeding on surrounding material in the past, and
why pulsars emit so much X-ray light.

The IXPE observatory separated from the rocket about 33 minutes into
flight before unfurling its solar arrays and entering an orbit around Earth’s
equator. Forty minutes after the launch, mission operators received the first
set of telemetry data from the spacecraft, NASA wrote in a press release.

Though an overshadowed one, the IXPE launch is a major victory for

NASA as the agency preps for the December 22nd launch of the James Webb
Telescope, NASA’s next major eyes in the sky.