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A Long March 2C rocket carrying the Einstein probe satellite will be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China’s Sichuan province, on January 9, 2024.
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A spacecraft designed to search the skies for bursts of X-rays that could help unravel mysterious phenomena related to black holes and star mergers flew this week.
The Einstein probe, named after the famous German-born theoretical physicist, launched on Tuesday aboard one of China’s Long March 2C rockets, according to a European Space Agency news release.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which operates China’s Long March rocket, confirmed the successful launch on social media.
The spacecraft was built as a joint effort involving the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, and the European Space Agency.
According to the ESA, discovering signs of X-ray bursts can help scientists gain a fundamental understanding of high-energy processes in the universe, such as supernova explosions, neutron star collisions, and black holes that spew out material after devouring magnetic fields. It is said that there is a possibility of deepening the
X-ray bomb search
The Einstein spacecraft will use two instruments to detect the bursts of X-ray light emitted by these phenomena: the Wide-Field X-ray Telescope (WXT) and the Tracking X-ray Telescope (FXT).
WXT is designed to scan a wide area of the sky looking for X-ray beams. The device is modeled after a lobster’s eye, which has thousands of square holes that focus light into a circular center. Using a similar design for its telescope, WXT will be able to capture one-tenth of the entire sky in a single snapshot, ESA said.
Once the WXT instrument detects X-rays, the more sensitive FXT instrument is designed to quickly collect more detailed information.
“Thanks to (WXT’s) unique wide line-of-sight, we will be able to capture X-ray light from collisions between neutron stars and determine the source of the gravitational waves detected on Earth,” said ESA’s Einstein spacecraft Eric Courkers. It can be done,” he said. project scientists said in a statement. “In many cases, once this elusive ripple in space-time is recorded, we cannot determine where it came from. Instantly discovering bursts of X-rays allows us to pinpoint the origin of many gravitational wave phenomena. You can identify it.”
The Einstein spacecraft is expected to operate in Earth orbit about 600 kilometers (370 miles) above the ground. The spacecraft is expected to be able to monitor her X-rays across the night sky in just three orbits around the Earth, or approximately every four-and-a-half hours.