Bengaluru- After the launch of Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and Aditya-L1 ventures, ISRO has readied a mission aimed at enhancing cutting-edge scientific understanding in Astronomy.
XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit.
The primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization) in medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. The XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload will give spectroscopic information in the energy range of 0.8-15 keV, according to ISRO.
“XPoSat is ready for launch,” an official of the national space agency headquartered here said on Saturday. According to ISRO, the emission mechanism from various astronomical sources such as blackholes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, pulsar wind nebulae originates from complex physical processes and are challenging to understand.
While the spectroscopic and timing information by various space-based observatories provide a wealth of information, the exact nature of the emission from such sources still poses deeper challenges to astronomers, ISRO officials say.
“The polarimetry measurements add two more dimensions to our understanding, the degree of polarisation and the angle of polarization and thus is an excellent diagnostic tool to understand the emission processes from astronomical sources,” ISRO said.
The polarimetric observations along with spectroscopic measurements are expected to break the degeneracy of various theoretical models of astronomical emission processes, the space agency said on the upcoming mission. This would be the major direction of research from XPoSat by the Indian science community.
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