Seminari
Thursday 26/05/2022 @ 11:30, Sala riunioni quarto piano
Paolo Soffitta (IAPS - INAF), "IXPE The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer"
IXPE is a NASA-ASI Small Explorer (SMEX) mission entirely devoted to X-ray polarimetry studies in the 2-8 keV energy band. IXPE was selected for launch on January 2017 and launched on 9th December 2021. After one month of commissioning it is observing about 30 sources during its first year from almost all classes. The mission is composed of three telescopes clocked at 120 degrees. Each telescope hosts a detector sensitive to polarization and a full calibration system developed by INAF, INFN and OHB-Italia. The detectors and the mirrors were calibrated at INAF-IAPS and MSFC respectively. A spare telescope was extensively calibrated with both polarized and un-polarized sources at MSFC. In this talk I will describe the past attempts, the mission across its developing phase and its first astrophysical results.