HELSINKI — China launched its Einstein Probe early Tuesday to detect X-ray emissions from violent, fleeting cosmic phenomena using novel lobster eye-inspired optics.
A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China at 2:03 a.m. (0703 UTC), Jan. 9. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) confirmed launch success within the hour.
The Einstein Probe (EP) is part of growing Chinese strategic space science efforts. The spacecraft will spend at least three years observing distant, violent interactions such as tidal disruption events—in which stars are pulled apart by supermassive black holes—supernovae, and detect and localize the high-energy, electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events.
By picking up soft band X-ray emissions from stars being ripped apart by massive black holes, the probe could provide new insights into how stellar matter falls into black holes and the complex and rare phenomena of formations of jets of ionized matter emitted by the events.
The 1,450-kilogram EP spacecraft will operate in a 600-kilometer altitude, 29 degree inclination orbit. From there it will observe the sky with a Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT).
WXT uses cutting edge “lobster eye” optics to allow the probe to view X-ray events more deeply and widely than previously possible. It follows a demonstration of a novel lobster eye optics module mission launched late 2022.
WXT combines 12 of the modules tested in 2022 to provide a field of view of 3,600 square degrees. The instrument uses a reflection technique, inspired by lobsters’ eyes, consisting of parallel square pores arranged on a sphere. The multitudes of square tubes guide X-rays down to a CMOS light detector.
The European Space Agency contributed to the mission with support for the testing and calibrating of the detectors and optical elements of the WXT.
ESA ground stations will also be involved in data…
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