After the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission and Aditya-L1, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to send India’s first X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) into space in December, the chairman of ISRO said on Tuesday.
The deep space observatory XPoSat aims to enhance the understanding of astronomy by using X-rays to make images of celestial objects and examining the physics of the environments surrounding them.
“The satellite is built and kept ready, but we are expecting to launch it by December this year,” ISRO chief Sreedhara Somanath said at an event organised by the Indian National Space Academy in New Delhi.
He added that the mission is crucial because it will help scientists understand and measure emissions from various astronomical sources such as black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and pulsar wind nebulae, which are otherwise difficult to study.
Such emissions are mainly tracked by studying the chemical composition (using a spectroscope) and the time it takes them to travel a distance.
ABOUT XPoSat
XPoSat has a pair of payloads on board including a polarimeter in X-rays (POLIX) which is designed to measure aspects of the polarised X-rays from distant bright sources, that are shrouded by obscuring clouds of gas and dust.
It will also include an X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing (XSPECT) instrument which will gather data on variations over time.
The five-year mission, XPoSat, is expected to observe about 40 X-ray sources and gather data that will allow astronomers to test various theoretical models, and guide the interpretation of the findings.