eROSITA (extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is an X-ray instrument built for the Russian-German mission launched on the Russian Spekt-RG spacecraft on 13 July 2019. The mission will perform the first imaging all-sky survey in the medium energy X-ray range up to 10 keV with 15″-30″ angular resolution, and covers galactic longitudes 180 < l < 360. eROSITA is 25 times more sensitive than ROSAT, which it will effectively replace.
Calibration and Performance Verification Observations were completed in December 2019. The first eROSITA all-sky survey was completed in June 2020, revealing a spectacular vision of the hot and energetic universe. The result has created a new map for astronomers, with this new survey capturing over one million objects – far exceeding the number discovered by previous X-ray telescopes. See more information here.
The eROSITA instrument has now completed its fourth survey of the full sky at X-ray wavelengths. At mission completion, eROSITA will have performed eight all-sky surveys. The existing eROSITA data already surpass those coming from previous all-sky X-ray surveys, having much greater depth, image quality, and spectral coverage. The eROSITA data offer the opportunity to study extremely energetic events across vast scales in the Universe, from accreting binary systems at stellar scales to 10-million-degree shocks driven by galaxy cluster mergers.
eROSITA has been in safe mode since February 2022. Given this, a technical checkout was performed in late 2022 to check the status and health of the instrument. No issues were found, so the instrument will be able to return to active operation when required.
For more information on the collaboration, email [email protected].
Approved eROSITA_DE PV Observations
