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Source: The post is based on the article “Indian researchers detect X-Ray Polarization in Extragalactic black hole” published in “Hindustan Times” on 16th November, 2023
Why in the News?
Researchers from the IIT Guwahati and the UR Rao Satellite Centre of ISRO have achieved a groundbreaking discovery by detecting polarized emissions from a black hole source outside our Milky Way Galaxy.
What are Polarized Emissions?
Polarized emissions are like light waves that prefer to move in a specific direction.
Imagine a crowd of people walking in straight lines instead of all directions. When light or other types of energy travel this way, it means they’re aligned in a particular direction, giving us clues about the source they came from and how they traveled through space.
This helps scientists understand more about what’s happening in distant objects, like black holes, far away in the universe.
How did the researchers detect polarized emissions from a black hole?
Researchers utilized a technique called X-ray polarimetry to study the binary star system ‘Large Magellanic Cloud X-3 (LMC X3)’.
The findings were observed using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and other missions.
What is Large Magellanic Cloud X-3 (LMC X3)?
Large Magellanic Cloud X-3 (LMC X3) was discovered in 1971. It is a binary star system consisting of a black hole and a ‘normal’ star that is much hotter, bigger, and more massive than the Sun.
It is located in a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way, nearly 200,000 light-years away from Earth.
What is XPoSat Mission?
| Specifications | Details |
| To be launched by | ISRO |
| Full Form | X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) |
| Purpose | To study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. |
| Payloads | The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit: 1) POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays): It will measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle of polarization). 2) XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing): It will give spectroscopic information (on how light is absorbed and emitted by objects).It would observe several types of sources, such as X-ray pulsars, blackhole binaries, low-magnetic field neutron star, etc. |
| Significance | It is India’s first and the world’s second polarimetry mission. The other such major mission is NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) that was launched in 2021. |
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