A joint Chinese-European X-ray telescope mission has been called Einstein probe He succeeded in viewing the universe on a wide screen, using a telescope design that mimics the eyes of a lobster.
Einstein probe that It was launched on January 9 The missile is currently being tested and calibrated on board the Chinese Long March missile as it orbits the Earth at an altitude of 600 kilometers (373 miles). Its first observations were revealed at a symposium in Beijing.
The problem with X-rays is that they are so high in energy that they are difficult to capture with a standard detector. The lenses don't work because the x-rays are too strong to be easily refracted, and the x-rays that hit the mirror and face will simply pass through said mirror. Instead, X-rays can only be detected when these rays strike a reflective surface at a shallow angle. From there, the rays can be directed toward a special X-ray detector. However, this mechanism poses a small problem. This means that an X-ray telescope can usually only detect X-rays along a narrow field of view; Outside this field of view, the X-rays will strike at a very large angle.
As it turns out, lobster is the answer – seeing lobster. Moreover, scientists came up with this basic idea in the late 1970s, but it took decades to successfully adapt this idea for use in X-ray telescopes in space.
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Human eyes work on the principle of refraction through the lens, also known as the cornea. On the other hand, lobsters use thinking. Their eyes consist of small tubes arranged in parallel square pores on the surface of their eyes, with each tube pointing in a different direction. Light enters the tubes and is reflected to the retina. While human vision extends over a field of about 120 degrees, lobsters have a panoramic vision of 180 degrees.
The Lobster-eye X-ray vision has previously been deployed on missions studying the solar wind, on interplanetary missions, and in a technology experimental mission called Leah (Lobster Eye Imaging for Astronomy) in 2022. However, the Einstein Probe is the first to use lobster eye optics in a space telescope. The Wide-Field . In just three orbits, WXT can image the entire sky in X-rays.
WXT looks for things that collide at night: so-called X-ray transits, which are often random or one-time events like a glowing or dormant star Black hole Suddenly lights up with activity when a small piece of substance is swallowed. It also includes phenomena such as Exploding stars And integration Neutron stars Which is the source Gravitational waves It resonates throughout the universe. This broad field of view should therefore allow WXT to significantly increase our knowledge of these transients.
To complement WXT's panoramic view, the Einstein Probe also carries on board a second telescope, known as the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT), which is a traditional X-ray detector with a narrower field of view. FXT provides more detailed, close-up observations of any transients detected by WXT.
Although still in the testing phase, WXT in particular has already proven its purpose. The Beijing symposium revealed that WXT found its first fleeting X-ray on February 19, an event linked to… Long gamma ray burst Resulting from the destruction of a massive star. Since then, WXT has discovered 141 more passing stars, including 127 stars unleashing X-ray flares.
FXT has also been busy during this trial period by following up on the X-ray transit discovered on March 20 — by WXT, no less — as well as imaging several known objects with Spherical block Omega Centauri.
“I am delighted to see the first observations from the Einstein Probe, which demonstrate the mission's ability to study large areas of the X-ray sky and quickly discover new celestial sources,” said Carol Mundell, ESA's Director of Science. in statement. “These early data give us a tantalizing glimpse into the dynamic, high-energy universe that will soon be within the reach of our scientific communities.”
“It is amazing that although the instruments are not yet fully calibrated, we have already been able to perform a time-critical follow-up observation using the FXT instrument of a fast X-ray transit first observed by WXT,” added ESA project scientist Erik Kolkers. For Einstein Probe. “It shows what Einstein would be able to do during the scanning process.”
This survey will initially last for three years, and is scheduled to begin next June once testing is officially completed. The data released at the recent symposium is just a preview of what we can expect.
The Einstein Probe is a collaboration between not only the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency, but also the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany and the Center National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France. Its discoveries will provide a huge catalog of objects for the upcoming European NewAthena (Advanced High-Energy Astrophysical Telescope) mission, which is currently in the study phase. Scheduled to be the most powerful X-ray telescope ever, it is scheduled to launch around 2037.
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