Amazon Quiz (October 31): Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is a joint effort between NASA and which country’s space agency?
Japan
UAE
Italy
China
Answer: Italy
A space observatory with three identical telescopes called X-ray imaging Polarimetry Explorer, also known as IXPE or SMEX-14, is intended to measure the polarisation of cosmic X-rays from black holes, neutron stars, and pulsars.
NASA and the Italian Space Agency collaborated together to launch the observatory on December 9, 2021. It is a component of NASA’s Explorers programme, which develops inexpensive spacecraft for heliophysics and astrophysics research.
The project will investigate unusual celestial objects and enable mapping of the magnetic fields of active galactic nuclei, black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, magnetars, and supernova remnants. The atmosphere around these items can produce high-energy X-ray radiation that is polarised, or oscillating in a specific direction.
It is possible to learn more about the physics of these things and the high-temperature conditions where they are generated by examining the polarisation of X-rays.
The observatory in space has three identical telescopes for measuring cosmic X-ray polarisation. It took Italian researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica (INAF) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) several years to design and perfect the polarization-sensitive detector.
The technical and scientific goals comprise:
Enhance polarisation sensitivity over the X-ray polarimeter on board the Orbiting Solar Observatory 8 by two orders of magnitude.
Provide spectral, spatial, and temporal observations all at once.
Identify the shape and emission mechanism of microquasars and active galactic nuclei.
Discover the magnetars’ magnetic field configuration and calculate the size of the field.
Find the geometry and the X-ray generation mechanism in pulsars (both isolated and accreting).
Analyze the acceleration of particles in the pulsar wind nebula.
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