{"id":213432,"date":"2025-05-07T05:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T10:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/nasas-ixpe-reveals-x-ray-generating-particles-in-black-hole-jets"},"modified":"2025-05-07T05:28:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T10:28:00","slug":"nasas-ixpe-reveals-x-ray-generating-particles-in-black-hole-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/nasas-ixpe-reveals-x-ray-generating-particles-in-black-hole-jets","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s IXPE reveals X-ray-generating particles in black hole jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nasas-ixpe-reveals-x-ray-generating-particles-in-black-hole-jets.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to answer a longstanding question: How are X-rays generated in extreme environments like this?<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) collaborated with radio and <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/optical+telescopes\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">optical telescopes<\/a> to find answers. The results, <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2505.01832\" target=\"_blank\">available<\/a> on the <i>arXiv<\/i> preprint server and set to be published in the journal <i>Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/i>, show that interactions between fast-moving electrons and particles of light, called photons, must lead to this X-ray emission.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists had two competing possible explanations for the X-rays, one involving protons and one involving electrons. Each of these mechanisms would have a different signature in the polarization of X-ray light. Polarization is a property of light that describes the average direction of the electromagnetic waves that make up light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The blazar BL Lacertae, a supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright disk and jets oriented toward Earth, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to answer a longstanding question: How are X-rays generated in extreme environments like this? NASA\u2019s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) collaborated with radio and optical telescopes to find answers. The results, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}