IXPE Stories
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IXPE Operations Update
Editor’s Note, April 3, 2024: IXPE resumed normal science operations on April 3. Learn more https://blogs.nasa.gov/ixpe/2024/04/03/ixpe-operations-update-2/. On March 23, NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) stopped transmitting valid telemetry data. The only previous interruption of IXPE science observations was due…
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NASA’s IXPE Awarded Prestigious Prize in High-energy Astronomy
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) team has been awarded a top prize in high-energy astronomy. The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has awarded the 2024 Bruno Rossi Prize to retired NASA astrophysicist Martin Weisskopf,…
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NASA’s IXPE Helps Researchers Maximize ‘Microquasar’ Findings
The powerful gravity fields of black holes can devour whole planets’ worth of matter – often so violently that they expel streams of particles traveling near the speed of light in formations known as jets. Scientists understand that these high-speed…
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NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy
On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission. IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of…
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NASA X-ray Telescopes Reveal the “Bones” of a Ghostly Cosmic Hand
In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and used them to image the bones in his wife’s hand, kicking off a revolutionary diagnostic tool for medicine. Now two of NASA’s X-ray space telescopes have combined their imaging powers to unveil the…
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IXPE Untangles Theories Surrounding Historic Supernova Remnant
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) telescope has captured the first polarized X-ray imagery of the supernova remnant SN 1006. The new results expand scientists’ understanding of the relationship between magnetic fields and the flow of high-energy particles from exploding…
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NASA’s IXPE Fires Up Astronomers With New Blazar Findings
An international team of astrophysicists, using new data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), published findings about the blazar called Markarian 421 – which offered some surprising results.
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Milky Way’s Central Black Hole Woke Up 200 Years Ago, NASA’s IXPE Finds
Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, woke some 200 years ago to devour cosmic debris, according to new findings from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer.
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Galaxy With Black Hole Shines In Image From NASA’s Chandra, IXPE
In the center of this galaxy is a supermassive black hole feeding off the gas and dust encircling it, and large jets of high-energy particles and other material spewing out.
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Historic Nebula Seen Like Never Before With NASA’s IXPE
On Feb. 22, 1971, a sounding rocket lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, with specialized sensors aimed at the Crab Nebula, a bright cosmic object 6,500 light-years away. In those days, before recovering physical tapes from the experiment, scientists first…