Now India has become world's 2nd country having polarimeter satellite, Xposat

 Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)  has launched the XpoSat(X-ray Polarimeter Satellite).It is India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions and became 2nd countries having polarimetry satellite after NASA.

The emission mechanism from various astronomical sources such as blackhole, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, pulsar wind nebulae etc. originates from complex physical processes and are challenging to understand. While the spectroscopic and timing information by various space based observatories provide a wealth of information, the exact nature of the emission from such sources still poses deeper challenges to astronomers. The polarimetry measurements add two more dimension to our understanding, the degree of polarization and the angle of polarization and thus is an excellent diagnostic tool to understand the emission processes from astronomical sources. The polarimetric observations along with spectroscopic measurements are expected to break the degeneracy of various theoretical models of astronomical emission processes. This would be the major direction of research from XPoSat by Indian science community.

The spacecraft will carry two scientific payloads in a low earth orbit.

1. POLIX

      the polix is an X ray polarimeter for astronomical observations in the 8-30 keV energy              band.it has been developed by raman research institute(RRI),Banglore along with U R              Rao Satellite Centre (URSC). The instrument is made of a collimator, a scatterer and                four X-ray proportional counter detectors that surrounds the scatterer.

2.XSPECT

XSPECT is an X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing payload onboard XPoSat, which can provide fast timing and good spectroscopic resolution in soft X-rays. Taking advantage of the long duration observations required by POLIX to measure X-ray polarization, XSPECT can provide long-term monitoring of spectral state changes in continuum emission, changes in their line flux and profile, simultaneous long term temporal monitoring of soft X-ray emission in the X-ray energy range 0.8-15 keV.


With the combined capabilities of POLIX and XSPECT, XPoSat is poised to provide a wealth of data to enhance our understanding of these extraordinary cosmic phenomena.