Is NASA’s new space mission capable of answering all questions about the universe?
The first science photographs from NASA’s new Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, were published on Monday.
A closer look at Cassiopeia shows the dazzling remnants of a star that burst in space in the 17th century.
In addition, it gives us a peek of what the space agency’s upcoming X-ray mission will teach us about some of the universe’s most dramatic occurrences, such as supernova explosions and cosmic collisions.
IXPE, NASA’s first mission dedicated to researching X-ray polarisation, or X-ray photons whose vibrations are all aligned in a single direction, was launched in early December.
The explorer uses polarisation to help explain where the X-ray light generated by space events originates, building on the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s work.
In mid-January, NASA released the first picture, which shows X-ray emissions of varying intensities IXPE distributed over the explosion.
Researchers will analyze the data to produce a first-of-its-kind Cassiopeia A X-ray polarisation map, which will shed light on the star’s X-ray emissions.
The Cassiopeia A supernova is depicted in vibrant magenta and blue in a second picture.
The image was created by combining data from the IXPE (magenta area) and Chandra X-ray Observatory (the blue regions).
Chandra’s data, acquired shortly after the telescope’s first deployment in 1999, indicated the presence of a black hole or neutron star at the supernova remnant’s center.
Cassiopeia A is the first of around 40 objects NASA expects to analyze during IXPE’s first year of operation.
The expedition might answer concerns regarding phenomena like black holes, such as how they spin and if the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way formerly fed on surrounding material, in addition to supernovae.
In addition, because humans cannot replicate space events in a lab, IXPE can be used to answer important questions about the physics of extreme environments, both small and large.
