IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

NASA released three new pieces of cosmic sound Thursday that are associated with the densest and darkest members of our universe: black holes.

Posted May 8, 2025

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

Astrophysics

Black Holes

Marshall Astrophysics

Marshall Science Research & Projects

Marshall Space Flight Center

Supermassive Black Holes

The Universe

NASA’s IXPE Reveals X-ray-Generating Particles in Black Hole Jets

The blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to answer a longstanding question: How are X-rays generated in extreme environments like this?

Posted May 6, 2025

Astrophysics

Astrophysics Division

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Hubble Space Telescope

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

The Universe

NASA Research To Be Featured at American Astronomical Society Meeting

From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Posted January 10, 2025

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

Marshall Science Research & Projects

Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA’s IXPE Details Shapes of Structures at Newly Discovered Black Hole

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole – specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the corona.

Posted December 6, 2024

Astrophysics

Black Holes

Goddard Space Flight Center

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

Marshall Astrophysics

Marshall Space Flight Center

The Universe

How Students Learn to Fly NASA’s IXPE Spacecraft

The large wall monitor displaying a countdown shows 17 seconds when Amelia “Mia” De Herrera-Schnering tells her teammates “We have AOS,” meaning “acquisition of signal.” “Copy that, thank you,” Alexander Pichler replies.

Posted August 21, 2024

General

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

IXPE Operations Update

On March 23, NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) stopped transmitting valid telemetry data. The only previous interruption of IXPE science observations was due to a similar issue in June of 2023.

Posted March 27, 2024

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

General

NASA’s IXPE Awarded Prestigious Prize in High-energy Astronomy

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) team has been awarded a top prize in high-energy astronomy.

Posted January 23, 2024

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

General

Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA’s IXPE Helps Researchers Maximize ‘Microquasar’ Findings

The powerful gravity fields of black holes can devour whole planets’ worth of matter – often so violently that they expel streams of particles traveling near the speed of light in formations known as jets.

Posted January 16, 2024

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

Marshall Space Flight Center

The Universe

NASA’s IXPE Marks Two Years of Groundbreaking X-ray Astronomy

On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission. IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light.

Posted December 8, 2023

Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Astrophysics

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer)

Marshall Space Flight Center

The Universe

NASA X-ray Telescopes Reveal the “Bones” of a Ghostly Cosmic Hand

In 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and used them to image the bones in his wife’s hand, kicking off a revolutionary diagnostic tool for medicine. Now two of NASA’s X-ray space telescopes have combined their imaging powers to unveil the magnetic field “bones” of a remarkable hand-shaped structure in space.

Posted October 30, 2023