First Image from IXPE Mission

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 
Video imagery:

·       X-ray image of Cassiopeia A: NASA/CXC/SAO/IXPE

Writer: Leah Ramsay

Designer: Leah Hustak, Joseph Olmsted

Science review: Dr. Emma Marcucci

Education review: Jim Manning

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Text, News from the Universe

 

February 18, 2022. First image from I X P E mission

 

NASA's Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (I X P E), which launched December 9, 2021, has delivered its first imaging data.

 

I X P E followed the path set by NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory of first looking at the extraordinary supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.

 

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Magenta corresponds to the intensity of X-ray light observed by I X P E.

 

Higher-energy X-ray data observed by Chandra is shown in blue.

 

Astronomers look forward to new understanding of the X-ray universe with I X P E's unique polarization data.

 

This news was brought to you in part by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama