With the successful launch of XPoSAT  or the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, at 9.10 am , India will become the second country after the US to have an ‘observatory’ to study black holes. The new mission comes on the heels of India’s successful moon mission Chandrayaan.
Using X-ray photons and their polarisation, XPoSAT will help study the radiation from near black holes and neutron stars. It carries two payloads namely POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing).
The satellite will measure polarisation of X-rays in the energy band 8-30keV emanating from about 50 potential cosmic sources through Thomson Scattering by POLIX payload.
It will carry out long term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources. It will also carry out polarisation and spectroscopic measurements of X-ray emissions from cosmic sources through POLIX and XSPECT payloads..
When stars run out of fuel and ‘die’, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes or neutron stars.
Black holes have the highest gravitational force in the universe and neutron stars have the highest densities.
Gathering more information on this, the mission will help unravel the mysteries of the ultra-extreme environments in space.
The XPoSat satellite cost around Rs 250 crore (approximately $30 million) while the NASA IXPE – which is on a similar mission since 2021 — required an outlay of $188 million.
The Indian satellite is expected to last more than five years compared to the two-year life span of the NASA IXPE,
The XPoSAT mission will see the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV — undertake its 60th flight. Besides the 469-kg XPoSAT, the 260-tonne PSLV will lift off with 10 experiments.

After a bridge and a train engine, Bihar’s list of bizarre thefts continued with an entire pond being “stolen”. The pond vanished and had a hut built on it, leaving the locals baffled in Darbhanga district.

The surprise appearance of a hut did prompt them to inform the cops, but the land mafia – who are accused of filling the pond to take over the land – had fled by the time the police arrived.

Locals suggest the pond was publicly-owned and even maintained for fishing and other activities. But the rising prices of land in Darbhanga made the mafia set their eyes on the water body.

The locals had complained to the authorities when the pond-filling started and had led to zonal officials briefly stopping the work and making some seizures. But the mafia carried out the levelling work secretly in the dark – until the pond was entirely gone.

“People say the pond was filled with soil within 10-15 days. The work was done only at night. Officials had visited the spot earlier and even seized some items,” said Amit Kumar, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO).

Bihar has hit the headlines for some of the most bizarre incidents of theft carried out – though not imaginable – by humans.

This includes an entire diesel engine being stolen in November, 2022 – part by part from a railway yard in Begusarai. The thieves had dug a tunnel to the yard and started stealing parts, according to the police. Slowly, they had taken away the entire engine that had come for repairs.

Earlier that year, an entire 60-foot bridge was stolen in Rohtas district. Eight persons including a government officer were arrested and 247 kg iron channels were recovered from the accused. The thieves used JCBs and gas cutters to dismantle it and the bridge disappeared in just three days.

US helicopters repelled an attack by Iran-backed Houthi militants on a Maersk container vessel in the Red Sea, sinking three ships and killing 10 militants, according to accounts by American, Maersk, and Houthi officials on Sunday.

The naval battle occurred around 0330 GMT on Sunday as the attackers sought to board the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou, Maersk and US Central Command (CENTCOM) said. Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely joined the ship’s security team in repelling the attackers after receiving a distress call, CENTCOM said.

Maersk said it was pausing all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours after the attack.

A spokesman for the Houthis said the group carried out the attack because the ship’s crew refused to heed warning calls. He said 10 Houthi naval personnel were “dead and missing” after their boats were attacked by US forces in the Red Sea.

The naval battle underlines the risk of a regional escalation in fighting as Israel continues with its relentless bombing campaign following a Hamas surprise cross-border attack on Israeli towns on October 7 that left 1,200 dead, and took 240 hostages. Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people, according to Gazan health authorities.

Yemen’s Houthis have been targeting vessels in the Red Sea since November to show their support for Hamas, prompting major shipping companies to take the longer and costlier route around the Africa’s Cape of Good Hope rather than through the Suez Canal.

The Red Sea is the entry point for ships using the Suez Canal, which handles about 12% of global trade and vital for the movement of goods between Asia and Europe.

The United States launched Operation Prosperity Guardian on December 19, saying more than 20 countries had agreed to participate in the efforts to safeguard ships in Red Sea waters near Yemen.

Maersk, one of the world’s top cargo shippers, said on December 24 it would resume sailing through the Red Sea. However, attacks have continued and US allies have proven reluctant to commit to the coalition, with nearly half not declaring their presence publicly.

The botched Houthi boarding operation was the second attack on the Maersk Hangzhou in as many days. The ship, which is carrying 14,000 containers en route from Singapore, was on Saturday hit by a missile about 55 nautical miles southwest of Al Hodeidah, Yemen.

The shipping company added that the crew of the Maersk Hangzhou crew was safe and there was no indication of fire onboard the vessel, which continued its journey north toward the Suez Canal.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby declined to say what options the US is considering when asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” if Washington would consider a preemptive strike on the Houthis.

“We have made it clear publicly to the Houthis, we’ve made it clear privately to our allies and partners in the region, that we take these threats seriously.”

Writing in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We are willing to take direct action, and we won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”

“The Houthis should be under no misunderstanding: we are committed to holding malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he had told Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a call that Iran should help stop the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The BIMCO shipping association condemned the attacks and thanked those states involved in repelling them.

“We are thankful to US, French, and UK efforts so far and hope even more states will support the coalition with naval assets or other impactful means including diplomatic pressure on the Houthis and their sponsors,” Jakob Larsen, BIMCO’s head of maritime safety and security, told Reuters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)