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IXPE Pairs Up with Space Telescopes to Discover Answers

IXPE is teaming up with more of NASA's Space Telescopes to discover the secrets of some of the most extreme objects in the universe – the remnants of supernova explosions, powerful particle streams spit out by feeding black holes, and more.

In 2001, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory first observed the pulsar PSR B1509-58 and revealed that its pulsar wind nebula (referred...
This release features a composite image of a pulsar wind nebula, which strongly resembles a ghostly purple hand with sparkling fingertips. A pulsar is a highly magnetized collapsed star that rotates and creates jets of matter flowing away from its poles. These jets, along with intense winds of particles, form pulsar wind nebulae. Here, the pulsar wind nebula known as MSH 15-52 resembles a hazy purple cloud set against a black, starry backdrop. Both NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) have observed MSH 15-52. Their observations revealed that the shape of this pulsar wind nebula strongly resembles a human hand, including five fingers, a palm and wrist. The bright white spot near the base of the palm is the pulsar itself. The three longest fingertips of the hand-shape point toward our upper right, or 1:00 on a clock face. There, a small, mottled, orange and yellow cloud appears to sparkle or glow like embers. This orange cloud is part of the remains of the supernova explosion that created the pulsar. The backdrop of stars was captured in infrared light.
In these images of the Tycho supernova remnant, data from IXPE are shown with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory,...
A Gif That shows a black sky with stars, then a pink and purple, and then a hazy pink overlay.
The galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) shines bright in this image combining data from multiple observatories. In the center of...
The galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) shines bright in this image combining data from multiple observatories. In the center of this galaxy is a supermassive black hole feeding off the gas and dust encircling it, and large jets of high-energy particles and other material spewing out
This release features a labeled, composite image of the supernova remnant SN 1006, debris from an exploded star that resembles...
This release features a labeled, composite image of the supernova remnant SN 1006, debris from an exploded star that resembles a mottled red ball of churning fire against a softer backdrop of stars. The turbulent supernova remnant appears to be encircled by a gauzy blue and white ring that is most prominent at our lower right and upper left. This structure is markedly different from other rounded supernova remnants.
The visible, infrared, and X-ray vision of NASA's Great Observatories have been combined to create a three-dimensional representation of the...
It is superimposed on a composite image made with data from the IXPE (purple), Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue and white), Hubble Space Telescope (gold), and Spitzer Space Telescope (red).
This illustration shows NASA’s IXPE spacecraft, at right, observing blazar Markarian 501, at left. A blazar is a black hole...
A black hole surrounded by an accretion disk with a jet protruding out of it, and a zoomed-in view of the jet showing different kinds of light being emitted after the particles hit the shock wave.
This release features two composite images of the Cas A supernova remnant, a structure resulting from the explosion of a...
In the primary image, the spherical cloud resembles a hazy ball of turquoise and neon blue lightning, marbled with veins of gold. The blues represent data from the Chandra Observatory, the turquoise is from NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (called IXPE), and the gold is courtesy of the Hubble Telescope.
This NASA illustration shows the structure of a black hole jet as inferred by recent observations of the blazar Markarian...
An illustration of of a black hole that looks purple at the bottom and shows a stream of white and blue coming out of the hole.
These images show X-ray data of the area around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way...
A gif of two images of a blue against black from Chandra and the red/pink is overlaid on top.
With polarization data from Cassiopeia A, IXPE will allow scientists to see, for the first time, how the amount of...
Cassiopeia A.
This image shows the Vela pulsar wind nebula. Light blue represents X-ray polarization data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer....
A gif showing a dark sky with stars with a purple image that fades in.