ISRO invites proposals from Indian researchers to study XPoSat Mission data

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday made an Announcement of Opportunity, inviting proposals from the country's astronomical community to access data from the XPoSat Mission, which studies bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.

Launched on January 1, 2024, the XPoSat, or X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, currently orbits Earth in a near-equatorial orbit at an altitude of 650 kilometres.

It carries two scientific payloads that help study X-ray emission mechanisms of black holes, neutron stars, and active galactic nuclei, among others.


In a statement, ISRO said that only "Indian scientists or researchers residing and working at institutes, universities or colleges in India" can submit proposals to access the mission's data.

The XPoSat Mission is the country's first satellite-based mission dedicated to making X-ray polarimetry measurements.

These measurements "add two more dimensions to our understanding, the degree of polarisation and the angle of polarisation, and hence is an excellent diagnostic tool to understand the emission processes from astronomical sources," according to ISRO.

Before the XPoSat Mission's launch, scientists largely depended on spectroscopic, imaging, and timing-based data obtained from either ground-based telescopes or satellite-based missions across the optical to the radio frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

While this provided a wealth of data, the exact nature of the emission from celestial sources still posed deeper challenges to astronomers. The XPoSat Mission helped expand the knowledge about these emissions.