Einstein Probe
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The Einstein Probe (EP) is an
X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
space telescope A space telescope (also known as space observatory) is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO ...
mission by
Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...
(CAS) in partnership with
European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA) and the
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics is part of the Max Planck Society, located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. In 1991 the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics split up into the Max Planck Institute for Extraterr ...
(MPE) dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics. The primary goals are "to discover high-energy transients and monitor variable objects". The telescope was launched by a
Long March 2C The Long March 2C (LM-2C), also known as the Chang Zheng 2C (CZ-2C), is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Developed and manufactured by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the Long M ...
rocket from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Centre The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...
in China, on 9 January 2024, at 07:03
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
.


Scientific objectives

The primary science objectives are: # Identify inactive
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
s to study how matter is precipitated there by detecting the transient events that take the form of X-ray flares; # Detect the electromagnetic counterpart of events triggering gravitational waves such as the merger of neutron stars which will be discovered by the next generation of gravitational wave detectors; # Carry out permanent monitoring of the entire sky to detect the various transient phenomena and carry out measurements of known variable X-ray sources.


Instruments

Einstein Probe carries 2 scientific instruments: the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT), and the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT). Both telescopes utilize X-ray focusing optics. * Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT): WXT has a new optics design, called " lobster-eye", that has wider field of view. "Lobster-eye" optics was first tested by the
Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy Lobster Eye Imager for Astronomy (LEIA) (also known as EP-WXT-pathfinder) is a wide-field X-ray imaging space telescope built by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). It was launched on July 27, 2022 onboard of SATech-01 satellite. It is designed ...
(LEIA) mission, launched in 2022. WXT consists of 12 lobster-eye optics sensor modules, together creating a very large instantaneous field-of-view of 3600
square degrees __NOTOC__ A square degree (deg2) is a non- SI unit measure of solid angle. Other denotations include ''sq. deg.'' and (°)2. Just as degrees are used to measure parts of a circle, square degrees are used to measure parts of a sphere. Analogous ...
. The nominal detection bandpass of WXT is 0.5–4.0
keV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum. When us ...
. Each module weighs 17 kg and has an electrical power consumption of just under 13 W. With the peripherals, the entire telescope weighs 251 kg and has a power consumption of 315 W. * Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT): FXT has optics adopted from
eROSITA eROSITA is an X-ray instrument built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany. It is part of the Russian–German Spektr-RG space observatory, which also carries the Russian telescope ART-XC. It was launched b ...
. "The mirror module consists of 54 nested Wolter mirrors with a focal length of 1600 mm and an effective area of greater than 300 cm2 at 1.5
keV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum. When us ...
." The probe weights 1450 kg and is .


Launch

The Einstein Probe was launched on 9 January 2024, at 07:03
UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...
by a
Long March 2C The Long March 2C (LM-2C), also known as the Chang Zheng 2C (CZ-2C), is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Developed and manufactured by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the Long M ...
rocket from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Centre The Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC), also known as the Xichang Space Center, is a spaceport in China. It is located in (), Mianning county, approximately northwest of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. It is op ...
in China, and successfully placed in
low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...
at an altitude of 600 km and an inclination of 29°, giving an orbital period of 96 minutes.


Findings

CAS reported that EP "performs as expected in the first month". The probe detected fast
X-ray transient X-ray emission occurs from many celestial objects. These emissions can have a pattern, occur intermittently, or as a transient astronomical event. In X-ray astronomy many sources have been discovered by placing an X-ray detector above the Earth's at ...
EP240315a, and
bright X-ray flare Bright may refer to: Common meanings *Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness *Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence People * Bright (surname) * Bright (given name) *Bright, the stage na ...
s EP240305a and EPW20240219aa. On 15 March 2024, the Einstein Probe detected EP240315a, a soft
X-ray burst X-ray bursters are one class of X-ray binary stars exhibiting X-ray bursts, periodic and rapid increases in luminosity (typically a factor of 10 or greater) that peak in the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These astrophysical syste ...
from 12.5 billion light-years away, lasting over 17 minutes—the longest duration observed from such an ancient explosion. Linked to
gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant Galaxy, galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme Electromagnetic radiation, ele ...
GRB 240315C, this event showed a six-minute delay between X-rays and gamma rays, never observed before. ESA notes that these findings challenge existing gamma-ray burst models. The probe observed an X-ray outburst from EP J0052, a rare binary system of a
Be star Be stars are a heterogeneous set of stars with B spectral types and emission lines. A narrower definition, sometimes referred to as ''classical Be stars'', is a non-supergiant B star whose spectrum has, or had at some time, one or more Balmer ...
and a
white dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...
(BeWD). After this discovery, several other space telescopes observed the system, including NASA's
Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...
and NICER, and ESA's
XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second corners ...
. XMM-Newton did not find the outburst 18 days after the EP's observations.


See also

*
Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes This timeline of artificial satellites and space probes includes uncrewed spacecraft including technology demonstrators, observatories, lunar probes, and interplanetary probes. First satellites from each country are included. Not included are most ...
* List of things named after Albert Einstein *
X-ray astronomy X-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical objects. X-radiation is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to ...
* List of space telescopes#X-ray


References


Further reading

*


External links

* at NAOC, CAS.
Einstein Probe
at ESA.int
Einstein Probe
at MPE.MPG.de {{Portal bar, Spaceflight, Astronomy Space telescopes X-ray telescopes 2024 in spaceflight Chinese Academy of Sciences E Space probes launched in 2024