- Hi, I'm Ellen Stofan, also known as Dr. E.
- And I'm Thomas Zurbuchen, also known as Dr. Z.
- [Dr. E] And we're here
at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
for another episode of "EZ Science."
Thomas, I'm really excited today
because we're talking about a new mission
that's going to launch soon,
and it's studying the universe using a different technique
than one that most people are familiar with.
- That's right, it's an X-ray telescope.
And it's actually an imaging polarimeter,
also known as IXPE.
It's an explorer mission,
it's much smaller than many of the other missions.
And it's looking at X-rays in entirely new ways.
- You know, here at the Air and Space Museum,
we really try to talk to the public
about how the fact that we look at the universe
using lots of different kinds of eyes.
And by using those different eyes,
we can actually learn much more.
And what I mean by that
is we're looking at different wavelengths
'cause each of those wavelengths of light
holds different information.
So why X-rays?
Most people are familiar with a broken bone
and getting an X-ray.
Why do we look at space with X-rays?
- An X-ray as opposed to much of the other radiation
that we see with our eyes,
or even with our radio telescope,
is really high energy radiation.
So it comes from gases that are over a million degrees hot.
And so that X-ray comes from objects
that we've read about, like black holes, like pulsars,
these amazing almost lighthouse structures,
very compact stars or exploding stars.
That's what X-rays are coming from.
- Well here at the Smithsonian,
we're really proud of the Chandra Observatory,
which was launched by the Space Shuttle.
There's a model of it up behind me, and it's operated by
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
the Center for Astrophysics up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
So Chandra kind of led the way
and has really given us this rich view of the universe.
- [Dr. Z] I have to tell you,
Chandra is one of the most productive missions
we've ever done.
Chandra, with its view on the X-ray universe,
has really transformed
how we're looking at not just our own galaxy,
but also the galaxies around them
and their relation to black holes.
- Yeah, and obviously looking at this high energy events,
you know, like super massive black holes, like nebulas,
trying to understand how do these things form,
how do they happen?
One of my favorite images or areas that Chandra has studied
is the Crab Nebula,
and the reason that's so fascinating to me
is first of all, it's actually something
that humans have been able to observe its history.
So in 1054, Chinese and Japanese astronomers,
basically early astronomers, saw a star explode.
You know, this bright light in the skies.
So here you have this extremely energetic event.
An explosion of a star
and now as we observe the Crab Nebula,
as you see the aftermath of this explosion,
X-rays are super useful for studying them.
- Exactly right.
And now let's look at IXPE at what it's going to bring.
So instead of just looking at X-rays
the way Chandra has, just looking at how many photons,
kind of pieces of light are coming
in the X-ray image in a given direction,
it will also add the polarimetry,
which is the direction in which the light,
the electric field in the radiation is oscillating.
So there's enormously new information
that's coming from that.
- Now, most of us are used to polarization,
thinking about sunglasses,
and allowing us to see much better in bright sunlight.
And that's because you have light that vibrates
in multiple directions.
And so a polarizing lens
allows you to clear out that information
and reduce the glare,
but there's information in all of that vibration
and that's what IXPE's gonna get at, right?
So all the different directions with vibration of light,
is telling us stuff.
- Yeah, so let's give an example, at the sun,
but also in some of these areas in astrophysics,
we think, but we haven't seen it yet.
There's magnetic fields that are going in a given direction
and electrons are going around it super, super fast.
Because they're bound to it and they're emitting radiation.
And it's oscillating, the radiation is oscillating
right perpendicular to that magnetic field.
We'll be able to detect that.
So we'll see depressants of magnetic fields,
for example, at the Crab Nebula, or if black holes rotate,
there should be a rotational pattern in that polarization.
Just amazing stuff we can gain
from really observing the underlying processes.
- I can't wait until IXPE launches.
So when is it gonna launch and from where?
- It's actually ready to get launched
as early as December 9th.
And it's gonna launch from the Cape,
and guess where it's launching from it's from?
It's from the most famous launchpad in all of NASA, 39A.
So it's the first time a dedicated science mission
that is not the Shuttle will launch from that pad.
- Can't wait.
And I'll tell you what also I can't wait for,
is another episode of "EZ Science."