NASA Selects Mission to Study Black Holes

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA Selects Mission to Study Black Holes, Cosmic X-ray Mysteries

Quote

NASA has selected a science mission that will allow astronomers to explore, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most extreme and exotic astronomical objects, such as stellar and supermassive black holes, neutron stars and pulsars.

Objects such as black holes can heat surrounding gases to more than a million degrees. The high-energy X-ray radiation from this gas can be polarized – vibrating in a particular direction. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission will fly three space telescopes with cameras capable of measuring the polarization of these cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about these turbulent and extreme environments where gravitational, electric and magnetic fields are at their limits. 

  Read More: NASA

 

[brlesq1]

Sounds like fun. I'll be waiting to see what they come up with.

[pallidin]

Impressive, to be sure.
From what I gather with a layman's knowledge, there must have been some agreements within the participating developers and advisory boards to do this for the benefit of science.

Edited January 5, 2017 by pallidin

[Waspie_Dwarf]

7 minutes ago, pallidin said:

  there must have been some agreements within the participating developers and advisory boards to do this for the benefit of science.

What agreements do you mean? This mission was proposed in the exact same way as every other mission in a NASA competitive selection process, and that is no different from any other scientific research programme attempting to get funding.

 

[Saru]

Thread cleaned

Let's keep the responses civil and on-topic please.

[paperdyer]

I guess this will be akin to an MRI of the objects we are examining.