Creating an international first! my country successfully launches Einstein probe satellite

At 15:03 on January 9, my country successfully launched the Einstein Probe Satellite using the Long March 2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit and the launch mission was a complete success.

The satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit and the launch mission was a complete success.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Qiu Lijun)

What are the special features of the Einstein probe?

The Einstein Probe Satellite is my country's first large-field-of-view X-ray astronomical satellite, used to capture astronomical phenomena such as black holes and electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein.

There are many spectacular and magical transient sources and explosive sources in the universe. Most of them can radiate huge amounts of energy in a very short period of time, showing complex brightness changes in the X-ray band, appearing and disappearing from time to time, such as black holes that are devouring stars and brilliant "fireworks" that bloom when stars die.

X-rays are an important wavelength band for detecting transient sources, but the transient sources that scientists have discovered so far are only the tip of the iceberg in the universe. A new generation of detection equipment with a very large field of view, high sensitivity, high resolution and rapid response capabilities is needed.

The Einstein Probe satellite came into being. It is equivalent to a "catcher" for cosmic explosions, which can accurately capture more distant and faint transient sources and explosive celestial bodies, and explore X-ray signals from gravitational wave sources. It has important scientific significance for studying the formation, evolution, and merger of compact celestial bodies such as stellar activities, black holes, and neutron stars.

'Lobster eyes' reveal secrets of the universe

Since it is a satellite, what does it have to do with "lobster"?

Most celestial bodies in the universe show complex brightness changes in the X-ray band, appearing and disappearing from time to time. Some celestial bodies that originally had no X-ray radiation will suddenly produce X-ray radiation, such as black holes that are swallowing stars. It is not easy to capture these fleeting phenomena. Based on this, scientists found inspiration from the eyes of lobsters. Biologists discovered early on that lobsters' eyes are different from those of other animals. They are composed of many micro-tubes in the shape of square holes. The walls of the tubes are smooth and point to the same center of the sphere. This structure allows light from all directions to be reflected in the small square holes and converge on the retina. In 1979, American scientists were inspired by this and proposed to simulate lobster eyes to make telescopes, allowing X-rays to be focused and imaged through reflection.

The Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WXT) used by the Einstein Probe is composed of many square micro-holes. When it passes over the surface of a smooth material at an incident angle close to 90 degrees, it can be reflected! This is the first large-scale use of micro-hole array focusing imaging technology in the world, that is, this telescope can see a darker and farther universe while seeing a wide range. At the same time, the micro-hole lobster glasses and CMOS (an image sensing element) detectors on the telescope launched this time are all independently developed by China.

Thanks to the use of the Lobster Eye Telescope technology, the Einstein Probe Satellite can conduct large-field-of-view, high-sensitivity, and rapid time-domain sky surveys in the soft X-ray band that is currently little known.

The Einstein Probe satellite will help scientists solve many unsolved mysteries about the dynamic universe and help answer a series of important scientific questions about the origin and evolution of celestial bodies and their basic physical laws.

Comprehensive sources: Xinhua News Agency, National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc.