The Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter (SXRP) will measure the polarization of x-rays with energies between 2 and 15 keV. The SXRP will provide an order of magnitude increase in polarization sensitivity over any previous astronomical x-ray polarimeter. It will allow x-ray polarization measurements of several classes of astronomical objects, including: binary x-ray pulsars, x-ray novae, radio pulsars, supernova remnants, and low-mass x-ray binaries.
The SXRP is a focal plane detector for the Danish-Russian
SODART telescope and will be launched on the Russian Spectrum-X-Gamma (SXG)
mission (the SXG spacecraft is shown above viewing a supernova remnant.)
The SXRP uses the polarization sensitivity of a graphite Bragg crystal
and a lithium Thomson scattering target to measure the polarization of
x-rays from astronomical sources.
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