NASA IXPE Captured Cassiopeia A in Its First Photo From Space

After its successful launch last Dec. 9, 2021, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) of the National Aeronatics and Space Administration (NASA) finally shared its first captured photo from space.

Specifically, the subject of the photo is the Cassiopeia A.

The IXPE is tasked with studying around 40 space objects during its first year.

NASA IXPE Captures Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A

In the recent blog post of NASA, it has been revealed that the IXPE has taken its very first captured image after a month-long commissioning phase.

Cassiopeia A, a remnant of a supernova that exploded in the 17th century, is the primary subject of the photo taken by the IXPE. The explosion's shock waves swept away nearby gas, heating it to high temperatures and speeding cosmic ray particles.

This has resulted in an x-ray glow cloud seen in the photo.

This supernova remnant was previously examined by other telescopes, but IXPE will allow scientists to have a more in depth look.

To provide further details of the image of the Cassiopeia A, NASA posted a picture of it on Twitter. According to NASA, "The saturation of the magenta color corresponds to the intensity of x-ray light observed by IXPE. It overlays high energy X-ray data, shown in blue, from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

With THEIR different types of detectors, Chandra and IXPE collect various degrees of angular resolution or sharpness.

The Chandra X-Ray Observatoy also captured Cassiopeia A in its first photo from space in 1999.

The IXPE principal investigator Martin Weisskopf stated that the IXPE image of Cassiopeia A is as historical as the Chandra photograph of the same supernova remnant.

To emphasize its help to the scientists, the space agency detailed that the fundamental measurement that scientists will conduct using IXPE is known as polarization.

Through this, scientists will be able to understand how x-ray light is orientated as it travels across space. The polarization of light carries information about the environment from which it came.

The equipment of the IXPE also monitor the energy, arrival time, and position in the sky of x-rays from cosmic sources.

NASA IXPE

In another NASA report, the space agency explained that Explorer, or IXPE, is a space observatory designed to unlock the secrets of some of the universe's most extreme phenomena.

These include supernova remnants, intense particle streams ejected by feeding black holes, and more.

IXPE is NASA's first mission to investigate x-ray polarization from a variety of celestial objects.

With regards on the equipments that NASA IXPE has, it carries three telescopes. Each telescope contains a set of cylindrical mirrors, which are known as optics, and a sensitive detector.

The mirrors gather x-rays from astronomical objects and concentrate them onto the detectors, which create a picture of the incoming x-rays and measure the polarization. A deployable 12-foot or 3.7-meter boom separates all three mirror sets to their respective detectors.

During its first year in orbit, IXPE will analyze more than 40 celestial objects, with more extensive follow-up investigations in the second year.