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The research team of IIT Guwahati and ISRO detected the emission that exists beyond our Milky Way Galaxy through a technique called X-ray polarimetry. Check key discoveries here!
New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have achieved a significant milestone by detecting X-ray polarisation emanating from a black hole source located outside our Milky Way galaxy.
Using a method known as X-ray polarimetry, the researchers at IIT Guwahati and ISRO have identified emissions from a celestial body situated outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
The team, spearheaded by Santabrata Das from IIT Guwahati and Anuj Nandi from URSC Bangalore, along with research scholars Seshadri Majumder from IIT Guwahati and Ankur Kushwaha from URSC, made these discoveries.
LMC X3 a Binary Star System: Unveiling Astrophysical Mysteries
The source, Large Magellanic Cloud X-3 (LMC X3), constitutes a binary star system comprising a black hole and a 'regular' star, significantly hotter, larger, and more massive than our Sun.
Positioned within a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, it lies approximately 200,000 light-years distant from Earth. These findings will significantly contribute to unravelling, probing, and comprehending the characteristics of astrophysical black hole sources.
As per the institute “Since its discovery in 1971, it has been observed by various satellites. However, there has been a gap in understanding the polarisation properties of X-rays emitted by highly energetic objects like stellar mass black holes in the universe.”
According to Santabrata Das, Professor of the Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati, “X-ray polarimetry is a unique observational technique to identify where radiation comes from near black holes. LMC X-3 emits X-rays that are 10,000 times more powerful than those from the Sun”.
“When these X-rays interact with the material around black holes, specifically when they scatter, it changes the polarisation characteristics, i.e. degree and angle. This helps in understanding how matter is drawn toward black holes in the presence of intense gravitational forces”, he added.
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Exploring LMC X-3 Using NASA's IXPE Mission
The team investigated LMC X-3 employing “The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)”, NASA's inaugural mission aimed at examining X-ray polarisation emitted by cosmic entities.
Additionally, the researchers utilised the comprehensive broad-band coverage offered by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) Mission and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission to narrow down the spin characteristics of LMC X-3.
According to Anuj Nandi, a Scientist at UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO Bangalore, “Intense gravitational fields can cause the emitted light from black holes to become polarised. Our observations indicate that LMC X-3 likely harbours a black hole with a low rotation rate, surrounded by a slim disc structure that gives rise to the polarised emissions”.
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