The commissioning phase of the eROSITA X-ray telescope aboard the SRG spacecraft has just been completed. During this phase, all seven eROSITA cameras have been switched on individually, and demonstrated performance satisfying the mission requirements. As of Sunday 13 October 2019, all seven telescope modules are operating simultaneously, and eROSITA has entered full science operations, beginning with the calibration and performance verification (CalPV) phase. Early images and results from eROSITA will be presented at a “first light” symposium to be held at MPE in the afternoon of Tuesday October 22nd. Interested members of the media should contact Hannelore Hämmerle (see side column) for more details.
Green light for eROSITA telescopes: All seven cameras are operating within their nominal temperature and voltage ranges with their filters in position, and are processing data.
Green light for eROSITA telescopes: All seven cameras are operating within their nominal temperature and voltage ranges with their filters in position, and are processing data.
When stars like our Sun use up all their fuel, they shrink to form white dwarfs. Sometimes such dead stars flare back to life in a super-hot explosion, called a “nova”, and produce a fireball of X-ray radiation. Using the eROSITA telescope on the SRG space observatory, a research team led by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)…
At today’s 16th Marcel Grossmann meeting, Dr. Peter Predehl accepted the Institutional Marcel Grossmann Award, which has been awarded to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE). The institute receives the award jointly with the S.A. Lavochkin Association and the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences…
Using the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey data, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have found two previously quiescent galaxies that now show quasi-periodic eruptions. The nuclei of these galaxies light up in X-rays every few hours, reaching peak luminosities comparable to that of an entire galaxy. The origin of this…
In the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA X-ray telescope onboard SRG, astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have identified a previously unknown supernova remnant, dubbed “Hoinga.” The finding was confirmed in archival radio data and marks the first discovery of a joint Australian-eROSITA partnership established to…
Gigantic hot-gas structures above and below the galactic disc are probably due to shock waves generated by past energetic activity in the center of our Galaxy.
The project "DarkQuest: Shedding Light on the Nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy with Multi-Wavelength All-Sky Surveys" led by Esra Bulbul at MPE is being funded by an ERC Consolidator grant for the next five years. Taking advantage of the eROSITA survey data, she aims to constrain dark energy and dark matter models.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s fifth generation collected its very first observations of the cosmos at 1:47 a.m. on October 24, 2020. As the world's first all-sky time-domain spectroscopic survey, SDSS-V will provide insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies—like like our own Milky Way—and of the supermassive black holes that lurk at…
A study led by Alejandra Yrupe Fresco (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics) during her stay at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has revealed the dim core and the jet structure in the nuclear region of M87, the brightest galaxy in the Virgo cluster. The observations were acquired in early April 2017, almost simultaneously…
Additional images from the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA X-ray telescope. You are free to use the images for your eROSITA reporting, please give the appropriate credit with each image.