Kazi Shayekh

NASA dispatched its Imaging X-beam Polarimetry Explorer mission, or IXPE, to quantify X-beams delivered by dark openings and neutron stars on 9th December 2021. The spacecraft, which is the collaborative effort of NASA and the Italian Space Agency, carries three telescopes. While IXPE isn't as big as NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, it is the first space observatory of its kind. The satellite will be able to see an often overlooked aspect of cosmic ray sources called polarization. The satellite's eyes on the universe include sensitive polarization detectors, which were made in Italy. The telescopes will observe the X-rays and feed them into the detectors, which can capture images of the X-rays and measure their polarization.