NASA has approved a new foreign mission that will in conclusion peer into the most incredible regions of the universe .
The space authority will launch the Imaging X - shaft Polarimetry Explorer ( IXPE ) in 2020 . The missionary station will have three telescopes equipped with peculiar cameras that can sensitively measure the ecstasy - ray sparkle emitted in the areas surrounding black kettle of fish , neutron stars , and pulsars .
gas in these uttermost environments reach temperature of more than a million degrees , and the vivid gravitational and electromagnetic field twist and bend light like nowhere else in the universe . These effects can give photons – atom of light – a specific commission , and it ’s this focussing , known as polarization , that IXPE will assess like no other instrument before .
“ We can not directly image what ’s going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars , but studying the polarization of go - shaft of light give off from their surround surround let out the physics of these oracular objects , ” said Paul Hertz , astrophysics partition theatre director for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington , in astatement . “ NASA has a great history of launch observatories in the Astrophysics Explorers Program with new and unique observational capability . IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through . Today , we can only think what we will discover . ”
The mission is expect to cost $ 188 million , which includes the telescope , the launching fomite , post - launch process , and even the data psychoanalysis . It will be led by Martin Weisskopf of NASA ’s Marshall Space Flight Center . The ballistic capsule will be render by Ball Aerospace and the Adam - rays detectors will be rise by the Italian Space Agency .
IXPE has been take as part ofNASA ’s Explorers Program , which has launch more than 90 mission and provided a vast range of instrument over our heads . Notable missions include Explorer 1 , which discovered the Van Allen Belts in 1958 , and the Cosmic Background Explorer , which studied the cosmic microwave oven background and lead the primary research worker to gain the Nobel Prize .
