Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
For: EFE
Friday, September 27
NASA launches mission to measure “violent universe” like black holes
The US space agency (NASA) together with its Italian counterpart launched the mission of the IXPE observatory from Florida , which will measure the polarization of X-rays of the most extreme and mysterious objects in the “violent universe”, such as black holes
The spacecraft was propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that successfully took off at 1: 00 EST from Kennedy Space Center, Central Florida.
“Together with our partners in Italy and around the world, we have added a new space observatory to our fleet that will shape our understanding of the universe in the coming years, ”said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
This is a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, which will measure the X-ray polarization of the most extreme and mysterious objects in the universe as remnants of supernovae, supermassive black holes and dozens of other high energy.
Everything that surrounds us
The IXPE observatory will show “the violent universe that surrounds us, as exploding stars and black holes in the center of galaxies, in ways that we have never been able to see “, he specified.
IXPE entered its orbit at an altitude of approximately 600 kilometres (372 miles), and approximately 40 minutes later After launch, the mission operators received the first telemetry data from the spacecraft.
“It is an indescribable feeling to see that something in what has worked for decades becomes real and is launched into space, ”said Martin Weisskopf, Principal Investigator at IXPE at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Weisskopf came up with the idea for the spacecraft and has conducted seminal experiments in X-ray astronomy since the decade of 1970.
“ This is just the beginning for IXPE . We have a lot of work ahead of us, “he stressed.
The IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) observatory represents an” extraordinary novelty, “Zurbuchen stressed.
IXPE has three state-of-the-art space telescopes with special detectors sensitive to polarization.
Polarization is a property of light that contains clues about the environment it originates from, NASA explained.The new mission builds on and complements scientific discoveries from other telescopes, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s flagship X-ray telescope .
This also interests you:
– A Puerto Rican is among those chosen by NASA as astronaut candidates
– Russia takes a Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station
– Total solar eclipse almost exclusively for scientists