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- Hi, I'm Ellen Stofan,
also known as Dr. E.

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- And I'm Thomas Zurbuchen,
also known as Dr. Z.

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- [Dr. E] And we're here

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at the Smithsonian's
National Air and Space Museum

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for another episode of "EZ Science."

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Thomas, I'm really excited today

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because we're talking about a new mission

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that's going to launch soon,

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and it's studying the universe
using a different technique

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than one that most
people are familiar with.

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- That's right, it's an X-ray telescope.

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And it's actually an imaging polarimeter,

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also known as IXPE.

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It's an explorer mission,

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it's much smaller than
many of the other missions.

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And it's looking at X-rays
in entirely new ways.

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- You know, here at the
Air and Space Museum,

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we really try to talk to the public

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about how the fact that
we look at the universe

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using lots of different kinds of eyes.

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And by using those different eyes,

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we can actually learn much more.

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And what I mean by that

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is we're looking at different wavelengths

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'cause each of those wavelengths of light

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holds different information.

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So why X-rays?

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Most people are familiar
with a broken bone

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and getting an X-ray.

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Why do we look at space with X-rays?

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- An X-ray as opposed to
much of the other radiation

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that we see with our eyes,

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or even with our radio telescope,

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is really high energy radiation.

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So it comes from gases that
are over a million degrees hot.

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And so that X-ray comes from objects

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that we've read about, like
black holes, like pulsars,

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these amazing almost
lighthouse structures,

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very compact stars or exploding stars.

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That's what X-rays are coming from.

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- Well here at the Smithsonian,

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we're really proud of
the Chandra Observatory,

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which was launched by the Space Shuttle.

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There's a model of it up
behind me, and it's operated by

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the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,

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the Center for Astrophysics up
in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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So Chandra kind of led the way

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and has really given us this
rich view of the universe.

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- [Dr. Z] I have to tell you,

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Chandra is one of the
most productive missions

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we've ever done.

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Chandra, with its view
on the X-ray universe,

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has really transformed

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how we're looking at
not just our own galaxy,

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but also the galaxies around them

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and their relation to black holes.

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- Yeah, and obviously looking
at this high energy events,

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you know, like super massive
black holes, like nebulas,

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trying to understand how
do these things form,

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how do they happen?

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One of my favorite images or
areas that Chandra has studied

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is the Crab Nebula,

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and the reason that's so fascinating to me

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is first of all, it's actually something

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that humans have been able
to observe its history.

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So in 1054, Chinese and
Japanese astronomers,

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basically early astronomers,
saw a star explode.

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You know, this bright light in the skies.

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So here you have this
extremely energetic event.

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An explosion of a star

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and now as we observe the Crab Nebula,

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as you see the aftermath
of this explosion,

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X-rays are super useful for studying them.

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- Exactly right.

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And now let's look at IXPE
at what it's going to bring.

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So instead of just looking at X-rays

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the way Chandra has, just
looking at how many photons,

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kind of pieces of light are coming

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in the X-ray image in a given direction,

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it will also add the polarimetry,

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which is the direction in which the light,

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the electric field in the
radiation is oscillating.

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So there's enormously new information

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that's coming from that.

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- Now, most of us are
used to polarization,

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thinking about sunglasses,

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and allowing us to see much
better in bright sunlight.

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And that's because you
have light that vibrates

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in multiple directions.

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And so a polarizing lens

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allows you to clear out that information

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and reduce the glare,

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but there's information
in all of that vibration

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and that's what IXPE's
gonna get at, right?

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So all the different directions
with vibration of light,

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is telling us stuff.

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- Yeah, so let's give
an example, at the sun,

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but also in some of these
areas in astrophysics,

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we think, but we haven't seen it yet.

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There's magnetic fields that
are going in a given direction

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and electrons are going
around it super, super fast.

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Because they're bound to it
and they're emitting radiation.

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And it's oscillating, the
radiation is oscillating

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right perpendicular to
that magnetic field.

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We'll be able to detect that.

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So we'll see depressants
of magnetic fields,

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for example, at the Crab Nebula,
or if black holes rotate,

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there should be a rotational
pattern in that polarization.

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Just amazing stuff we can gain

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from really observing
the underlying processes.

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- I can't wait until IXPE launches.

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So when is it gonna launch and from where?

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- It's actually ready to get launched

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as early as December 9th.

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And it's gonna launch from the Cape,

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and guess where it's
launching from it's from?

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It's from the most famous
launchpad in all of NASA, 39A.

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So it's the first time a
dedicated science mission

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that is not the Shuttle
will launch from that pad.

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- Can't wait.