Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, March 16 (Xinhua)-- China plans to launch a new X-ray astronomical satellite, the Einstein probe (Einstein Probe, referred to as EP), at the end of 2023, which is expected to capture the first ray of light from a supernova, help search and accurately locate the source of gravitational waves, and discover more distant, fainter celestial bodies and fleeting mysterious phenomena in the universe.

Yuan Weimin, chief scientist of the Einstein probe satellite and researcher of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the 35th National Symposium on Space Exploration that the satellite project has entered the final development stage of the prototype.

According to reports, the Einstein probe is another space science satellite developed by the second phase of the space science pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, following "Taiji 1", "Huairou 1" and "Kuafu 1". The European Space Agency, the Mapu Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, and the French Space Agency jointly participated in the satellite project.

The Einstein probe project, one of the second phase of the space science pilot project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on December 29, 2017. the satellite, with a mass of 1.45t, operates in 600km low-Earth orbit with an inclination of 30 °and is designed to be in orbit for no less than 3 years.

EP satellite is a scientific exploration satellite for time-domain astronomy and high-energy astrophysics. It aims to discover and explore temporary X-ray sources and explosive objects in the universe, and to issue early warning to guide other astronomical equipment to follow and observe. The goal is to find X-ray drastic objects, to explore silent black hole flares and gravitational wave sources X-ray signals, and so on.

The Einstein probe satellite is loaded with wide field of view telescope (WXT) and follower telescope (FXT), among which WXT International uses lobster eye microhole X-ray imaging technology and CMOS X-ray detector on a large scale for the first time, and 12 sub-telescopes form a large field of view for gaze monitoring; FXT uses Wolter-I grazing focus telescope to carry out fine follow-up observation, and guides other space-earth equipment to observe cooperatively through Beidou short message.

The EP satellite aims at the merging of black holes with other celestial bodies, the distribution, formation and evolution of black holes in the universe, electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources, the early universe, supernovae, activity of compact celestial bodies and other major scientific issues to carry out scientific research, including all-sky X-ray time series panoramic images, X-ray spectra and time-varying data of celestial bodies and other time-domain astronomical observation data. It provides valuable data accumulation for the development of time-domain astronomy. At the same time, EP satellite takes the silent (inactive) black hole as the research object for the first time, which will open up a new research field of black hole engulfing star events.

It is worth mentioning that EP satellite has a large uniform field of view and high detection sensitivity, will be able to detect rare X-ray temporary sources, and has the ability to discover unknown types of X-ray temporary celestial bodies and phenomena. CTOnews.com predicts that EP will bring us more important scientific discoveries in time-domain astronomy and its intersecting fields with astrophysics and cosmology.

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