Extended sources in the age of IXPE

The NASA-ASI Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) launched in December 2021 and has since enabled, for the first time, the ability to perform spatially resolved X-ray polarimetry in the 2 - 8 keV band for a wide range of extended sources. Thanks to its unique capabilities, IXPE has allowed us to probe the magnetic-field geometry closer than ever to the particle acceleration sites in young supernova remnants (SNRs) shocks. It has also unveiled the level of magnetic turbulence and its distribution in pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) and has even shed light on the recent past of our Galactic center (GC). Up to now, IXPE has observed six SNRs (Cas A, Tycho, SN 1006, RCW 86, RX J1713.7-3, and Vela Jr.), five PWNe (the Crab, Vela, MSH15-52, PSR B0540-69, and G21.5), the molecular clouds of the Sgr A complex near the GC, and the eastern lobe of the jet of the microquasar SS433. The X-ray polarimetric results from all the sources observed to date have exceeded, and in many cases subverted, our expectations. In this talk, I will present the latest, unprecedented insights offered by the new field of spatially resolved X-ray polarimetry.