The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA-Italian Space Agency telescope launched in 2021. It measures polarization, the orientation of X-ray light waves, from the most extreme objects in the sky: black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, and supernova remnants.
Polarization is a dimension of light most telescopes ignore. It encodes the geometry of magnetic fields and matter near objects too small and distant to photograph directly.
IXPE maps the shape of things no telescope can photograph: how matter swirls in its last moments before falling into a black hole, and how a pulsar's magnetic field twists. Its first pulsar measurement forced theorists to revise models they had used for decades.
Key Facts
- Launched
- December 9, 2021
- Partners
- NASA and the Italian Space Agency
- Measures
- X-ray polarization
- Targets
- Black holes, pulsars, magnetars, supernova remnants
- Telescopes
- 3 identical X-ray units
Timeline
December 2021
Launch on Falcon 9
February 2022
First observation: supernova remnant Cassiopeia A
2023
Maps magnetic fields near the Milky Way's central black hole regions
Next up
Extended mission observations
Latest IXPE News
NASA Space Telescope Maps Magnetic Fields of ‘Lighthouse’ Pulsar
For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to directly measure the magnetic fields of PSR J1101−6101, a pulsar located within what is often referred to as the Lighthouse Neb
IXPE
Facts last reviewed 2026-07-11. Official mission page: science.nasa.gov