What is eROSITA?

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About eROSITA

· The eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is a wide-field X-ray telescope on-board the Russian-German “Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma” (SRG) observatory.
· It was developed under the leadership of the Max-Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Germany (DE).
· It is a sensitive X-ray telescope capable of delivering deep, sharp images over very large areas of the sky.
· The eROSITA telescope consists of seven identical Wolter-1 mirror modules.
· SRG was successfully launched from Baikonur on July 13 2019, and placed in a halo orbit around the L2 point.
· Functions
- o It has been performing an all-sky survey, in which the whole celestial sphere is mapped once every six months. Eight such all-sky charts are planned until December 2023.
- o It is also expected to yield a sample of several million Active Galactic Nuclei, providing a unique view of the evolution of supermassive black holes within the emerging cosmic structure.
- o The survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including accreting binaries, active stars and diffuse emission within the Galaxy, as well as solar system bodies that emit X-rays via the charge exchange process.