NASA’s new X-ray space telescope is poised to reveal unseen wonders across the cosmos. Called XRISM, this ambitious mission is a collaboration between space agencies in Japan, the US and Europe.
While our eyes can only see visible light, XRISM has special abilities. It can detect high-energy X-rays – the kind released by the hottest and most violent events in space. This allows XRISM to peer into the powerful hearts of exploding stars, searing gas around black holes, and trillion-degree plasma in galaxy clusters.
XRISM carries two cutting-edge X-ray instruments – Resolve and Xtend. Resolve acts like a microscope, breaking down X-rays to reveal the fingerprints of individual atoms inside cosmic objects. This lets scientists figure out what elements are present and learn about how the object formed.
The science team has unveiled some of XRISM’s first observations. The images provide a tantalizing preview of what’s to come. For example, XRISM traced radioacive elements created in the blast of a stellar explosion – almost like watching forensics solve a cosmic crime scene! Another image revealed hundreds of galaxies merging together, caught in the act thanks to XRISM’s X-ray vision.
There have been a few technical snags with getting one instrument fully up and running. But the team is troubleshooting the issues. They’re confident XRISM will meet its potential to unveil the hot, energetic side of the universe when science operations start later this year.
For now, astronomers are eagerly preparing proposals for targets they want XRISM to observe once it’s 100% operational. The early results prove this telescope will open up a new window on the X-ray cosmos, shaping our understanding of how stars live and die, what lurks in galactic hearts, and what the universe is made of.
