ISRO announced Thursday that a payload on its freshly launched mission captured its first light from a conventional astronomical source for instrument evaluation.
The XSPECT payload on XPoSat, India’s first X-ray polarimetric mission launched on January 1, has captured its first light from the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant, according to a statement from the space agency headquartered in Bengaluru.
“XSPECT payload passes its performance test with an observation of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant”, it stated.
ISRO stated that XSPECT’s spectrum and temporal research have the potential to reveal the secrets of the universe in soft X-rays. XPoSat includes two co-aligned experiments, the POLarimeter Instrument in X-rays (POLIX) and the X-ray SPECtroscopy and Timing (XSPECT), which aim to solve the riddles of cosmic X-ray sources.
The POLIX instrument investigates X-ray polarisation in medium-energy X-rays, while the XSPECT payload conducts continuous and long-term spectral and temporal studies of X-ray sources in the soft X-ray band.
During the performance verification phase, XSPECT was pointed at Cassiopeia A, a common astronomical source utilized for instrument evaluation.
“The observation began on January 5, 2024, capturing the supernova remnant’s emission lines corresponding to elements such as magnesium, silicon, sulfur, argon, calcium, and iron”, the statement reads.
The Space Astronomy Group at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC)/ISRO in Bengaluru is developing the XSPECT payload.
“The continuous observations made possible by XSPECT’s long-duration capabilities are expected to significantly contribute to our understanding of the universe’s high-energy phenomena”, ISRO noted.
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