In the mission direct role of ASI, on board the satellite three important Italian instruments
The NASA Ixpe satellite is ready for take-off-Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer that it will depart from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 9th, at 07.00 Italian time, and it will be a new one mission that sees the direct involvement of ASI with the US agency. The Italian Space Agency explains that it is a mission that is part of NASA’s Smex – Small Explorer space program on which they are installed 3 telescopes with detectors capable of measuring polarization in X-rays emitted by cosmic sources. The detectors funded by the Italian Space Agency and developed by a team of Italian scientists of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn) and the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf), “have a sensitivity of two orders of magnitude better than the polarimeter in X-rays aboard the Orbiting Solar Observatory (Oso-8), an operational mission in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Italian team has had a long experience in detectors for polarization measurements in X-rays since the 1970s “, ASI explains.
Scientists from Asi, Infn and Inaf explain that “Ixpe will open a new astrophysics ‘window’ whose main objectives will be the study of active galactic nuclei (Agn), microquasars, pulsars and pulsars wind nebulae, magnetars, binaries in X-rays, supernova remnants and galactic center under the lens of polarimetry “. Ixep also “will provide simultaneous measurements of polarization, spectral variability and will be in grad
or also for the first time to provide images of cosmic sources in polarimetry, thus allowing to study the geometry and physical processes of radiation emission and acceleration of particles, in environments with extreme magnetic and gravitational fields “. The satellite will be launched with the Falcon 9 vector and will have a circular orbit at 540 kilometers in height and 0 degrees of inclination.
The president Asi Giorgio Saccoccia, the president of Inaf, Marco Tavani, the president of Infn Antonio Zoccoli will light up a beacon on the mission of the Ixpe space telescope than next Friday December 3 (from 9.30) will open an overview online on the Italian mission and role. Barbara Negri, Human Flight and Scientific Instrumentation Manager of Asi will talk about the role of the Italian Space Agency with Imma Donnarumma, Ixpe Project Scientist for Asi. The science of Ixpe instead it will be described
from
Paolo Soffitta Italian Principal Investigator and scientist of INAF and by Luca Baldini, Italian Co-Principal Investigator and scientist of Infn. The role of industry instead it will be explained by Paolo Lorenzi Head of scientific instruments pre-developments at Ohb.
Source-www.adnkronos.com