The Indian Space Research Organisation has announced that the XPoSat mission will lift off at 9:10 am using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This mission is not only India's first dedicated polarimetry mission but also the world's second, following Nasa's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) launched in 2021.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is all set to begin the New Year with the launch of its first X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) to investigate the intense polarisation of X-ray sources in space.
Astronomers will be able to learn more about some of the most significant cosmic occurrences and enhance their grasp of how the intriguing system of X-rays works in space thanks to the study mission. Astronomers are very interested in the polarisation of X-rays from celestial sources, particularly in light of recent findings from NASA's IXPE polarimetry project.
🚨 ISRO to launch its first polarimetry mission XPoSat likely on Jan 1, 2024.
It will be India's third space based observatory after Aditya L1 and AstroSat. pic.twitter.com/GvQasebww4
ISRO’s old workhorse PSLV will execute the mission at about 9.10am on Monday. After being injected into a 650 km Low Earth Orbit (LEO), it will continue to transmit data for the following five years. The U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), an ISRO facility, and the Bengaluru-based Raman Research Institute (RRI) will each build one of the satellite's two primary payloads.
The main payload POLIX will serve as an X-ray Polarimeter designed for astronomical observations within the medium energy band of 8-30 keV, and will observe bright astronomical sources across various categories.
Another payload XSPECT is an X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing instrument, designed to offer fast timing and spectroscopic resolution in soft X-rays (0.8-15 keV). It will observe a variety of sources, including X-ray pulsars, black hole binaries, low-magnetic field neutron stars (NS), active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and magnetars.
With the first-ever solar observatory, Aditya L-1, slated to arrive in its destination during the first week of January, the space agency is likely to have a busy start to the year. After being launched on September 2, the satellite is travelling to the Sun-Earth system's L1 point, which is located around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.