There are only three things you can measure about a black hole: its mass, spin, and charge. I am interested in the ability for IXPE to give us a new way of measuring the spin, and possibly even checking to see if there are any changes to that spin over a long enough time.
Black holes make up 40% of the dark matter in the universe, but only recently have they been photographed. The data IXPE will bring back will help determine if black holes once fed on their neighbors and make it easier for scientists to study the particles around them. It is possible to map the inner edge of a black hole by measuring its spin.
The remnants of massive stars that lived fast and died young could give us a glimpse of how the universe evolved.
Herman Marshall is a research scientist at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and a co-investigator for IXPE.
