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NASA to launch new X-ray telescope to look at black holes

We are about to gain a new perspective on some of the most extreme objects in the universe. In the early morning hours of December 9, NASA will launch its Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, mission to measure X-rays emitted by black holes and neutron stars.

The satellite is scheduled to launch at around 3:00 am (GMT) on Thursday (9) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Live coverage of the release will be available on NASA TV and on the agency’s website.

The spacecraft, which is a collaborative effort by NASA and the Italian Space Agency, carries three telescopes. Although the IXPE is not as large as NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, it is the first space observatory of its kind. The satellite will be able to see an often overlooked aspect of cosmic ray sources called polarization.

Advances in X-ray astronomy

“The launch of the IXPE marks a bold and unique advance for X-ray astronomy,” said Martin Weisskopf, the principal investigator of the IXPE, in a statement. “The IXPE will tell us more about the precise nature of cosmic X-ray sources than we can learn by studying their brightness and color spectrum alone.”

X-rays are a highly energetic wavelength of light that is born from extremes. In space, this includes powerful magnetic fields, collisions between objects, explosions, scorching temperatures and rapid rotations.

This light is practically encoded with the signature of its creator, but the Earth’s atmosphere prevents the X-rays from reaching the ground. That’s why scientists rely on X-ray telescopes in space.

Polarized light also bears the unique imprint of its source and what it went through along the way. While light waves can vibrate in any direction, polarized light only vibrates in one direction.

Understanding Extreme Cosmic Objects

Using IXPE to study the polarization of cosmic X-rays can help scientists better understand the remains of exploded stars such as black holes and neutron stars, their environments and how they produce X-rays. This perspective on extreme cosmic objects can also reveal the answers to larger fundamental questions about physics.

“The IXPE will help us test and refine our theories of how the universe works,” said Weisskopf. “There may be even more interesting answers ahead than we hypothesized. Better yet, we can find whole lists of new questions to ask!”

The satellite’s eyes in the universe include sensitive polarization detectors, which were made in Italy. Telescopes will observe the X-rays and feed them to detectors, which can capture images of the X-rays and measure their polarization.

“This will be revolutionary in terms of X-ray data acquisition,” said Weisskopf. “We will be analyzing the results in the coming decades.”

Translated text. Read the original in English.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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