NASA IXPE
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE Studies Magnetar
Scientists using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) conducted more than 140 hours of observations of the magnetar 1E 1547-5408, shown in this Aug. 5, 2026, artist’s concept, between March and April 2025. In doing so, they may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed. Magnetars are a special class of neutron…
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE May Have Proven 90-Year-Old Theory
A first-of-its-kind measurement of a magnetar may have captured empty space behaving in a way physicists have predicted for 90 years, but never directly observed. The results published Wednesday in Nature. This artist’s concept depicts magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408, a rapidly rotating neutron star with magnetic fields over a trillion times stronger than Earth’s. Blue curves emanating from the star’s two magnetic…
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NASA
NASA Space Telescope Maps Magnetic Fields of ‘Lighthouse’ Pulsar
For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to directly measure the magnetic fields of PSR J1101−6101, a pulsar located within what is often referred to as the Lighthouse Nebula. The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, as NASA continues to explore the secrets…
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE Gets Fresh Look at Supernova
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission has taken a new observation of a supernova, RCW 86, seen here in an image released on March 24, 2026. This observation helps fill in a fuller picture of what other telescopes have seen. The full image combines IXPE’s data with legacy observations from two other X-ray telescopes: NASA’s Chandra and the ESA (European…
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NASA
White Dwarf Star (Artist’s Concept)
A smaller white dwarf star (left) pulls material from a larger star into a swirling accretion disk in this artist’s concept released Nov. 19, 2025, to illustrate the first use of NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a white dwarf star. IXPE spent nearly one week focused on EX Hydrae, a white dwarf star system located in the…
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Press Releases
NASA IXPE’s ‘Heartbeat Black Hole’ Measurements Challenge Current Theories
Written by Michael Allen An international team of astronomers using NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), has challenged our understanding of what happens to matter in the direct vicinity of a black hole. With IXPE, astronomers can study incoming X-rays and measure the polarization, a property of light that describes the direction of its electric field. The polarization degree is…
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE Imager Reveals Mysteries of Rare Pulsar
An international team of astronomers has uncovered new evidence to explain how pulsing remnants of exploded stars interact with surrounding matter deep in the cosmos, using observations from NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) and other telescopes. Scientists based in the U.S., Italy, and Spain, set their sights on a mysterious cosmic duo called PSR J1023+0038, or J1023 for short. The J1023…
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE Obtains First X-ray Polarization Measurement of Magnetar Outburst
What happens when the universe’s most magnetic object shines with the power of 1,000 Suns in a matter of seconds? Thanks to NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer), a mission in collaboration with ASI (Italian Space Agency), scientists are one step closer to understanding this extreme event. Magnetars are a type of young neutron star — a stellar remnant formed…
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NASA
How Students Learn to Fly NASA’s IXPE Spacecraft
The large wall monitor displaying a countdown shows 17 seconds when Amelia “Mia” De Herrera-Schnering tells her teammates “We have AOS,” meaning “acquisition of signal.” “Copy that, thank you,” Alexander Pichler replies. The two are now in contact with NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-Ray Polarimeter Explorer) spacecraft, transmitting science data from IXPE to a ground station and making sure the download goes smoothly.…
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NASA
NASA’s IXPE Awarded Prestigious Prize in High-energy Astronomy
NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) team has been awarded a top prize in high-energy astronomy. The High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has awarded the 2024 Bruno Rossi Prize to retired NASA astrophysicist Martin Weisskopf, Italian Space Agency principal investigator Paolo Soffitta, and their team for development of IXPE, “whose novel measurements advance our understanding…
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