The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready to start the New Year with the launch of its first polarimetry mission, XPoSat, on January 1, according to insiders. This will be India’s third space-based observatory, following the recent launch of the solar mission Aditya-L1 and AstroSat in 2015.

The purpose of the XPoSat mission is to study the “polarisation” of astronomical X-rays. Polarisation is a way of studying space events, in addition to taking pictures of them. It involves looking at the changes in light from a source and the energy given off by celestial bodies. This observatory will help scientists understand how black holes and neutron stars (the collapsed core of a big star) emit energy.

The XPoSat mission will complement the efforts of the US space agency NASA, which launched its polarimetry satellite Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) in 2021. These two satellites will work together to observe space events across a broad energy range of 2-30 keV.

Since the Indian space sector opened to private companies, ISRO has been launching more scientific missions. In 2023, the Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the South Pole of the Moon, and ISRO sent a satellite toward the L1 point between the Earth and the Sun for uninterrupted observations. Besides these, ISRO completed five other missions, including the successful SSLV flight, a navigational satellite for an Indian GPS-like service, and a commercial mission using its heaviest LVM3 vehicle.