Shakir Khan
Jan 91 min
India's space agency ISRO started the New Year with a successful launch of a spectacular mission.
On the first day of the year 2024, India launched a unique mission for the study of black holes, It was launched from Sriharikota spaceport at 09:10 local time (03:40GMT) on Monday. India's first and the world's second, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on a PSLV C58 rocket.
XPoSat
Well, there are many instruments in this mission but the most important one is the satellite called XPoSat.
Its job is to study the X-ray energy, which has determined around 50 sources which are mostly black holes.
The satellite carries the POLIX instrument to study the X-ray energy band (5 to 30 KeV).
This instrument is made by the Roman Research Institute. Black holes and neutron stars are sources of X-ray energy, and in the case of a black hole, it is important to study these X-rays to determine the composition of the material surrounding it and how it changes over time.
Polarization of energy is the function of this POLIX instrument.
X-ray telescopes exist in space, but they do not undergo polarization, that's why this Indian mission is unique.
NASA:
NASA launched a mission called IXPE in 2021 for the same purpose.