While Interstellar After the idea of black holes became popular, physicists and research labs continue to expand their investigations into such interstellar phenomena to further understand the origins of our universe.
In December 2021, the US-based National Aeronautics Space Agency launched the X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission to examine the remnants of supernova explosions, the streams of particles emitted by black holes and other cosmic events.
On January 1, the Indian Space Research Organization welcomed the new year with the successful launch of its first X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) that would provide insights into celestial bodies such as black holes and neutron stars. This comes as Isro rushes to launch 12 more missions this year, including Gaganyaan-1 and Mangalyaan-2. Mint explains the significance of XPoSat and why the mission could bring us closer to understanding the origins of our planet.
What is the purpose of XPoSat?
XPoSat, expected to last about five years, consists of two scientific payloads in low Earth orbit (close to the Earth's surface) – the primary payload, POLIX (X-ray polarimeter instrument), to measure the polarimetry parameters (degree and angle). to measure. of polarization); and the XSPECT payload (X-ray spectroscopy and timing) to provide spectroscopic information. X-ray polarimetry is used to understand how intense gravitational forces pull matter toward black holes.
Why are black holes important?
When a giant star dies in a supernova, it can be completely destroyed, becoming a black hole or a neutron star. A neutron star is so compact that just a teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh 10 million tons, and research suggests that neutron star collisions are one of the major sources of heavy elements like gold and uranium in the universe.
Black holes actually exist. A black hole is anything but empty space and is so called because not even light can escape from it. Black holes were predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, which showed that when a massive star dies, it leaves behind a small, dense core.
His general relativity equations showed that if the mass of the core is more than about three times the mass of the Sun, gravity overwhelms all other forces and produces a black hole.
Simply put, observing and thinking about the properties of black holes has provided tremendous insights into the nature of the universe and the role they may play in the formation of galaxies.
Why is more research needed on this?
As NASA puts it, you can think of a star ten times as massive as the sun, but squeezed into a sphere about the diameter of New York City. As the star collapses, the star's surface approaches an imaginary surface called the 'event horizon', where time appears to stand still and the star can no longer collapse: it is a frozen collapsing object.
Black holes include the event horizon and 'singularity': a point at the center that is infinitely small and infinitely dense. The laws of general relativity have given physicists a good understanding of the 'event horizon', but they have yet to fully understand 'singularity'.
How important is India's role in space research?
India continues to play an important role in black hole research. Consider these examples.
The country expects to set up a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)-India, an advanced gravitational wave observatory, by 2030.
Gravitational waves, described as 'ripples' in space-time, are caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe, such as massive accelerating objects. The strongest gravitational waves are produced by cataclysmic events such as colliding black holes, supernovae (massive stars that explode at the end of their lives), and colliding neutron stars.
Four years ago, for example, researchers confirmed the detection of a collision between a black hole and a neutron star, causing gravitational waves to ripple across at least 900 million light-years to reach Earth (one light-year is the equivalent of 9 trillion kilometers away). that light travels in a year at a speed of 300,000 km per second).
Furthermore, NASA's main X-ray observatory was named the Chandra to collapse.
Professor CV Vishveshwara, who passed away in Bengaluru in early 2017, was one of the true pioneers of black hole physics. Among his other achievements, he provided mathematical proof of the stability of Schwarzschild black holes (the simplest black holes with mass but no electric charge and no spin), suggesting that if black holes were indeed produced, they would persist.
And India's first dedicated satellite, AstroSat, launched by Isro in September 2015, has for the first time ever observed rapid variability in the high-energy X-rays from a black hole system. In August 2021, Indian researchers discovered that three supermassive black holes merged to form a triple active galactic nucleus.
India's new XPoSat mission, along with the many space missions planned for this year, will only strengthen these efforts and help the country embellish its name in space as well.