LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19, 2022 (Xinhua) — Astronomers have for the first time measured and plotted polarized X-ray images from the remnants of an exploding star using its Polarized X-ray Imaging Explorer, the US space agency said Tuesday.
The findings, which came from observing the remains of a massive star called Cassiopeia A, shed new light on the nature of the remnants of a supernova, according to NASA.
The Explorer was launched on December 9, 2021, and is a collaborative project between NASA and the Italian Space Agency. It is the first satellite that can measure the polarization of X-ray light with this level of sensitivity and clarity.
“We’ve lost important information regarding things like Cassiopeia A without the polarized X-ray explorer,” said Pat Slan of the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who leads the explorer’s investigation of supernova remnants.
“This result teaches us regarding a key aspect of the debris generated by this exploding star — the behavior of its magnetic fields,” he said.
