XPoSAT

XPoSAT

Subject :Science and Technology

Section: Space technology

Context :

The Indian Space Research Organisation is collaborating with the Raman Research Institutes, Bengaluru ,to build the X-ray polarimeter satellite(XPoSAT), which is scheduled to be launched later this year.

What is XPoSAT mission

According to ISRO,”XPoSAT will study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions”. It has been billed as India’s first, and only the world’s second polarimetry mission after that of NASA’S imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer(IXPE) that was launched in 2021.

How it works

Various celestial bodies like neutron star, Black Holes emit X-ray as low as 0.3 nm, certain wavelengths in its spectrum are polarised light(which vibrate in one plane).The  field of Polarimetry helps us by measuring the angle of rotation of the plane of polarised light. Since these are very complex to study by normal space observatory, X-ray Polarimeter is used.

Payloads

The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit. The primary payload POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarisation. POLIX is expected to observe about 40 bright astronomical sources of different categories during the planned lifetime of XPoSat mission of about 5 years. This is the first payload in the medium X-ray energy band dedicated for polarimetry measurements.

The secondary payload XSPECT(X-ray Spectroscopy and timing) will give spectroscopic information of how light is emitted and absorbed by objects in space. It would observe several types of sources, such as X-ray pulsars, black hole binaries, low -magnetic field ,neutron star etc