Astrophysics Branch
Marshall Space Flight Center's Astrophysics Branch uses space and ground-based observatories to peer back to the earliest epochs of the universe, unravel its mysteries, and study the most violent explosions in our galaxy and beyond. Our goal is to help discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars.
A target of opportunity request for the black hole binary 4U1630-47 was received and approved on 8/19/22 and the pointing data were uploaded to the spacecraft to carry out the observation from 8/22-9/02/22. The source is currently in outburst and …
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Views third Target of Opportunity Read More »
Chandra’s Perseus Sonification release went viral after its release on 5/4/22. The sonification release was featured and appeared on several social media accounts as well as news/media outlets. Features include the Today Show (todayshow.com), WashingtonPost.com, USAToday.com, The Guardian.com, Vice.com, theAtlantic.com, …
Chandra’s Perseus Sonification Goes Viral and is Featured on Several Media Outfits Read More »
Chandra issued an image release on 9/12/22 titled “Setting the Clock on a Stellar Explosion”. A new image of SNR 0519-69.0 shows the debris of a star that exploded several hundred years ago in Earth’s timeframe. The explosion of a …
Chandra: Setting the Clock on a Stellar Explosion Read More »
To date the IXPE science team has submitted 14 discovery papers to various journals. Of these, one has already appeared in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) and four others have been accepted by Nature, Nature Astronomy, ApJ and Monthly Notices of …
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Discovery Papers and Star Tracker Update Read More »
The Rocket Experiment Demonstration of a Soft X-ray Polarimeter (REDSoX) proposal was selected and funded. REDSoX is a sounding rocket payload designed primarily to demonstrate the technology needed to measure linear X-ray polarization as a function of energy below 1 …