Astrophysics Branch

Marshall Space Flight Center's Astrophysics Branch uses space and ground-based observatories to peer back to the earliest epochs of the universe, unravel its mysteries, and study the most violent explosions in our galaxy and beyond. Our goal is to help discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars.

A growing black hole, called a quasar, is seen at the center of a faraway galaxy in this artist's concept. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes discovered swarms of similar quasars hiding in dusty galaxies in the distant universe.

NASA’s Chandra Catches Spider Pulsars Destroying Nearby Stars

January 30, 2024

A group of dead stars known as “spider pulsars” are obliterating companion stars within their reach. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of the globular cluster Omega Centauri is helping astronomers understand how these spider pulsars prey on their stellar …

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Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Celebrates the Anniversary of its Launch

January 29, 2024

Congratulations to our IXPE Team as we mark the second anniversary of the IXPE launch. See IXPE Launch Team in image below. Read more about IXPE’s groundbreaking X-ray astronomy discoveries at: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/ixpe/nasas-ixpe-marks-two-years-of-groundbreaking-x-ray-astronomy/. In more recent IXPE news, results of the …

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Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Discovery Papers and More

January 29, 2024

On 11/16/23, Astrophysical Journal Letters published online “The First X-ray Polarization Observation of the Black Hole X-ray Binary 4U 1630–47 in the Steep Power-law State” by Nicole Rodriguez Cavero et al. :  On 11/21/23, Astrophysical Journal Letters published online “Discovery …

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Chandra Program Conducts Quarterly Review and Biannual Engineering Review

December 13, 2023

The Chandra X-ray Observatory Program conducted its Quarterly Review of mission status on 11/15/23 at the Chandra Operations Control Center in Burlington, MA. Several members of the Chandra team from MSFC attended in-person. The team reviewed talks on the overall …

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IXPE Untangles Theories Surrounding Historic Supernova Remnant

December 12, 2023

NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) telescope has captured the first polarized X-ray imagery of the supernova remnant SN 1006. Situated some 6,500 light-years from Earth in the Lupus constellation, SN 1006 is all that remains after a titanic explosion, …

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