Speaker
Description
On December 9th 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) was launched on a Falcon IX from Cape Canaveral into its equatorial, low-Earth orbit, where it began scientific observations on January 11th 2022. Equipped with three identical telescopes---each providing simultaneous polarimetric, spatial, spectroscopic and temporal information---IXPE will measure, for the first time in the soft X-ray band, the polarization of tens of celestial objects of different classes: supernova remnants, pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae, magnetars, active galactic nuclei and accreting black holes.
In this contribution I will describe the design and construction of the innovative polarization-sensitive gas detectors at the IXPE focal plane, with emphasis on the lesson learned through the development phase of the mission. In addition, I will report on the instrument commissioning and early experience in orbit, as well as the first scientific results.
| Collaboration | IXPE |
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