NASA approves a new mission to study mysteries of black holes
A mission slated for 2020 might reveal more about a hard-to-study phenomenon.
A mission slated for 2020 might reveal more about a hard-to-study phenomenon.
NASA will launch a spacecraft armed with three special telescopes to study black holes and other extreme astrophysical phenomena, the agency announced this week.
The mission, slated for late 2020, was selected by the agency from fourteen proposals from the Astrophysics Explorers Program.
The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), as the mission is known, will allow scientists to measure the polarization of X-rays radiating from gases heated by black holes and other objects. They鈥檒l do it using new polarization-sensitive telescopes developed by the Italian Space Agency.
That data will give scientists a much better idea of what the environments around black holes are like.
鈥淲e cannot directly image what鈥檚 going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects,鈥� Paul Hertz, director of NASA鈥檚 astrophysics division in Washington, said in a statement. 鈥淚XPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through.鈥澛�
It could fit into an interesting, and growing, body of such research. In August, 海角大神鈥檚 Joseph Dussault reported that scientists had recorded, for the first time, an explosive event that occurs just after a black hole consumes the matter it pulls in:
Martin Weisskopf of NASA鈥檚 Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. will helm the $188 mission, with Colorado鈥檚 Ball Aerospace providing spacecraft and mission integration.
The Astrophysics Explorers program, notes SpaceNews, is designed to create more frequent access to space for astronomers, specializing in small and medium mission types that sometimes include tag-alongs, like flying instruments on balloons and other spacecraft. This spring, the agency is expected to choose a small mission proposal from two finalists.
NASA also has bigger-ticket missions in mind 鈥� among them, its plan to send astronauts to Mars within the next few decades. And as the Monitor鈥檚 Weston Williams reported this week, the agency might have come up with a means of sheltering future colonizers: ice.