The European Space Agency
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Designed to see X-rays in space, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is finally sending its spacecraft Einstein Probe into space after months of speculation.
It's set to launch in January 2024. The telescope has new generations of instruments characterized by heightened sensitivity and an expansive observational field.
The probe is inspired by the lobster's eye. The lobster's eye is special because it lets light come in from all directions. This light then reflects in the tubes and focuses on the retina.
This design gives the lobster a wide field of view, helping it see a lot around itself in the ocean, reported Interested Engineering.
Similarly, the Einstein Probe has special tools on board. These are the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) and the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT).
The WXT is designed like a lobster's eyes and uses Micro Pore Optics. This lets it look at a really big part of the sky, almost one-tenth of the whole sky at once - 3,600 square degrees.
With this, the Einstein Probe can keep an eye on almost all of the night sky in just three orbits around Earth, and each orbit takes about 96 minutes.
The impending mission of the CAS spacecraft is poised to systematically scrutinize our celestial cosmos. Its primary objective is the discernment and investigation of X-ray radiation originating from cosmic entities, notably neutron stars and black holes, said the press release by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Einstein Probe is not just a solo mission. The CAS is working together with the ESA and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany to make this mission happen.
They're pooling their knowledge and resources to explore the secrets of the universe using the Einstein Probe.
"Thanks to its innovative design, Einstein Probe can monitor large swaths of the sky at a glance," said Erik Kuulkers, ESA's Einstein Probe Project Scientist. "In this way we can discover many new sources while at the same time study the behaviour of X-ray light coming from known celestial objects over long periods."
"The cosmos is our only laboratory to investigate the most energetic processes. Missions like Einstein Probe are essential to advance our understanding of these processes and to learn more about fundamental aspects of high-energy physics," added Kuulkers.
The observation of fresh X-ray sources is of paramount importance in advancing our understanding of the genesis of gravitational waves.
The soon-to-come Einstein Probe will be like a cosmic detective, trying to learn more about what's happening out there in space.
"Einstein Probe's capabilities are highly complementary to the in-depth studies of individual cosmic sources enabled by the other missions," remarks Kuulkers.
"This X-ray surveyor is also the ideal precursor to ESA's NewAthena mission, currently under study and set to be the largest X-ray observatory ever built," he added.
ESA has been crucial in the creation of the Einstein Probe's scientific tools. They helped test and calibrate the X-ray detectors and the optics of WXT.
China X Ray Tube Factories ESA also collaborated with MPE and Media Lario (Italy) to develop the mirror assembly for one of FXT's two telescopes.