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IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

    IXPE Celebrates 1 Year of Exploring the Cosmos

    A rocket launches, trailed by bright blue and warm white flames that leave a pile of billowy smoke clouds on the ground.

    One year ago, NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) lit up the early morning sky as it started its journey into space. The satellite was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 9, 2021. IXPE is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from …

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    Meet IXPE Scientist Abel Lawrence Peirson

    Abel Lawrence Peirson

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has led Abel Lawrence Peirson to all kinds of interesting places. He's used AI techniques to examine brain activity in flies and other neuroscience applications. With the help of AI, he's even trained a neural network to create internet memes, displaying phrases on images in a way that looks like a human …

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    IXPE Checks Out X-rays from Extreme Objects

    NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, a joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, has returned data that no other spacecraft has obtained before from a few extreme cosmic objects. Launched in December 2021, IXPE has detected polarized X-rays from three of its first six targets. Polarized X-rays carry unique details about where the …

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    IXPE Begins Science Operations

    This week, after having spent just over a month in space, IXPE began science operations. The observatory's boom was deployed successfully on Dec. 15, and the team then spent three weeks checking out the observatory's maneuvering and pointing abilities and aligning the telescopes. On Jan. 11, IXPE began observing its first official scientific target: Cassiopeia …

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    IXPE Unfolds its Origami Boom for Science

    A gif of IXPE deploying in space

    NASA's newest X-ray observatory – the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE – extended its boom successfully Dec. 15, giving IXPE the ability to see high-energy X-rays. The mission, which launched on Dec. 9, is one step closer to studying some of the most energetic and mysterious places in the universe in a new way. …

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    NASA’s IXPE Journeys to Explore the Universe

    NASA's IXPE launch from Kennedy Space Center

    NASA's Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission launched at 1 a.m. EST Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, the IXPE observatory is NASA's first mission dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from the most extreme and mysterious objects …

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    IXPE Teams Communicating with NASA Spacecraft

    We have signal acquisition, meaning teams are now communicating with NASA's Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft, as it embarks on its two-year journey to study changes in the polarization of X-ray light through some of the universe's most extreme sources, including black holes, dead stars known as pulsars, and more. "Everything has gone smoothly; …

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    Falcon 9 Second Stage Separates from IXPE Spacecraft

    IXPE spacecraft separation

    NASA's Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft just reached a major milestone as it successfully separated from the second stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. IXPE will now continue on its journey to study changes in the polarization of X-ray light through some of the universe's most extreme sources, including black holes, dead stars known …

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    Successful Landing for Falcon 9 First Stage

    SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket's first stage completed a perfect landing, touching down on the company's "Just Read the Directions" drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean off of the Florida coast. Coming up next will be second engine cutoff, or SECO .

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