The remnant of supernova N132D is located in the central part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light years away. XRISM’s Xtend captured the rest as X-rays, shown in the inset. At its widest point, N132D is about 75 light years across. Although bright in X-rays, the stellar wreckage is almost invisible in the ground background view taken in optical light. Credit: Box, JAXA/NASA/XRISM Xtend; context, C. Smith, S. Points, the MCELS team and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
The Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory has released a first look at the unprecedented data it will collect when science operations begin later this year.
The satellite’s science team has released a snapshot of a cluster of hundreds of galaxies and a spectrum of stellar wreckage in a nearby galaxy, giving scientists a detailed look at its chemical composition.
“XRISM will provide the international scientific community with new insight into the sky hidden from X-rays,” said Richard Kelley, U.S. principal investigator for XRISM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We will not only see X-ray images of these sources, but also study their compositions, movements and physical states.”
XRISM (pronounced “crism”) is led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA, with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency). It was launched on September 6, 2023.
It is designed to detect X-rays with energies up to 12,000 electron volts and will study the hottest regions of the universe, the largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity. For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.
The mission includes two instruments, Resolve and Xtend, each at the center of an X-ray mirror array designed and built at Goddard.
XRISM’s Xtend instrument captured the galaxy cluster Abell 2319 in X-rays, shown here in purple and outlined by a white border representing the detector’s extent. The background is a ground image showing the area in visible light. Credit: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Xtend; background,DSS
Resolve is a microcalorimetric spectrometer developed by NASA and JAXA. It operates at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero inside a refrigerator-sized container of liquid helium.
When an X-ray hits Resolve’s 6 x 6 pixel detector, it heats the device by an amount related to its energy. By measuring the energy of each X-ray, the instrument provides previously unavailable information about the source.
The mission team used Resolve to study N132D, a supernova remnant and one of the brightest X-ray sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away in the southern constellation from Dorado. The expanding wreckage is estimated to be about 3,000 years old and was created when a star about 15 times the mass of the sun ran out of fuel, collapsed and exploded.
The Resolve spectrum shows peaks associated with silicon, sulfur, calcium, argon and iron. This is the most detailed X-ray spectrum of the object ever obtained and demonstrates the incredible science the mission will achieve when regular operations begin later in 2024.
“These elements were forged into the original star and then destroyed when it exploded as a supernova,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard.
XRISM’s Resolve instrument captured data from the remnant of supernova N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud to create the most detailed X-ray spectrum of the object ever created. The spectrum reveals peaks associated with silicon, sulfur, argon, calcium and iron. The inset on the right is an image of the N132D captured by XRISM’s Xtend instrument. Credit: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve and Xtend
“Resolve will allow us to see the shapes of these lines in a way never before possible, allowing us to determine not only the abundance of different elements present, but also their temperatures, densities and directions of movement with unprecedented levels of precision .there we can gather information about the original star and the explosion.”
XRISM’s second instrument, Xtend, is an X-ray imager developed by JAXA. This gives XRISM a wide field of view, allowing it to observe an area approximately 60% larger than the average apparent size of the full moon.
Xtend captured an X-ray image of Abell 2319, a rich galaxy cluster located about 770 million light-years away in the northern constellation Cygnus. It is the fifth brightest X-ray cluster in the sky and is currently undergoing a major merger event.
The cluster measures 3 million light years and showcases Xtend’s wide field of view.
“Even before the commissioning process is complete, Resolve is already exceeding our expectations,” said Lillian Reichenthal, NASA XRISM project manager at Goddard. “Our goal was to achieve a spectral resolution of 7 electron volts with the instrument, but now that it is in orbit we are reaching 5. This means we will obtain even more detailed chemical maps with each spectrum captured by XRISM .”
This composite image shows the remains of supernova N132D. It uses data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple and green) and the Hubble Space Telescope (red). N132D is among the brightest X-ray remnants of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. Credit: NASA/STScI/CXC/SAO, processing by Judy Schmidt, CC BY-NC-SA
Resolve is performing exceptionally well and is already conducting exciting research despite an issue with the opening gate covering its detector. The door, intended to protect the detector before launch, did not open as expected after several attempts. The gate blocks low-energy X-rays, cutting the mission at 1,700 electron volts from the planned 300.
The XRISM team will continue to explore the anomaly and study different approaches to opening the gate. The Xtend instrument is not affected.
Provided by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Quote: NASA/JAXA XRISM mission reveals its first glimpse of the X-ray cosmos (January 5, 2024) retrieved January 5, 2024 from
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