The eROSITA X-ray telescope on SRG
Open accessAbstract
eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the primary instrument on the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission, which was successfully launched on July 13, 2019, from the Baikonour cosmodrome. After the commissioning of the instrument and a subsequent calibration and performance verification phase, eROSITA started a survey of the entire sky on December 13, 2019. By the end of 2023, eight complete scans of the celestial sphere will have been performed, each lasting six months. At the end of this program, the eROSITA all-sky survey in the soft X-ray band (0.2–2.3 keV) will be about 25 times more sensitive than the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, while in the hard band (2.3–8 keV) it will provide the first ever true imaging survey of the sky. The eROSITA design driving science is the detection of large samples of galaxy clusters up to redshifts z > 1 in order to study the large-scale structure of the universe and test cosmological models including Dark Energy. In addition, eROSITA is expected to yield a sample of a few million AGNs, including obscured objects, revolutionizing our view of the evolution of supermassive black holes. The survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including X-ray binaries, active stars, and diffuse emission within the Galaxy. Results from early observations, some of which are presented here, confirm that the performance of the instrument is able to fulfil its scientific promise. With this paper, we aim to give a concise description of the instrument, its performance as measured on ground, its operation in space, and also the first results from in-orbit measurements.
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High-sensitivity X-ray telescopes eROSITA and MAXI have detected the southern counterpart of the NPS, known as the eROSITA bubbles.
“It was only very recently that the high-sensitivity X-ray telescopes, such as eROSITA (Predehl et al. 2021) and MAXI , have been able to detect the southern counterpart of the NPS, known as the eROSITA bubbles (Predehl et al. 2020; Nakahira et al. 2020).”
From The Fermi/eROSITA bubbles: a look into the nuclear outflow from the Milky Way (2024) · cites this paper as Predehl et al. 2021
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Detection of large-scale X-ray bubbles in the Milky Way halo
Predehl, P., Sunyaev, R. A., Becker, W., Brunner, H., Burenin, R., Bykov, A., Cherepashchuk, A., Chugai, N., Churazov, E., Doroshenko, V., et al. (2020) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2979-0 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Fermi/eROSITA bubbles: a look into the nuclear outflow from the Milky Way
Sarkar, K. C. (2024) · The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review · doi:10.1007/s00159-024-00152-1 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“The energy requirement for the X-shaped region is ∼ 10 55 erg (Bland-Hawthorn & Cohen 2003), about an order of magnitude smaller than the required energy of ∼ 10 56 erg for the eROSITA bubbles (Sofue 2000; Kataoka et al. 2013; Predehl et al. 2021).”
BackgroundDiscovery of non-equilibrium ionization plasma associated with the North Polar Spur and Loop I
Yamamoto, M., Kataoka, J., & Sofue, Y. (2022) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stac577 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Predehl, P., Andritschke, R., Arefiev, V., Babyshkin, V., Batanov, O., Becker, W., Böhringer, H., Bogomolov, A., Boller, T., Borm, K., Bornemann, W., Bräuninger, H., Brüggen, M., Brunner, H., Brusa, M., Bulbul, E., Buntov, M., Burwitz, V., Burkert, W., Clerc, N., Churazov, E., Coutinho, D., Dauser, T., Dennerl, K., Doroshenko, V., Eder, J., Emberger, V., Eraerds, T., Finoguenov, A., Freyberg, M., Friedrich, P., Friedrich, S., Fürmetz, M., Georgakakis, A., Gilfanov, M., Granato, S., Grossberger, C., Gueguen, A., Gureev, P., Haberl, F., Hälker, O., Hartner, G., Hasinger, G., Huber, H., Ji, L., Kienlin, A. V., Kink, W., Korotkov, F., Kreykenbohm, I., Lamer, G., Lomakin, I., Lapshov, I., Liu, T., Maitra, C., Meidinger, N., Menz, B., Merloni, A., Mernik, T., Mican, B., Mohr, J., Müller, S., Nandra, K., Nazarov, V., Pacaud, F., Pavlinsky, M., Perinati, E., Pfeffermann, E., Pietschner, D., Ramos-Ceja, M. E., Rau, A., Reiffers, J., Reiprich, T. H., Robrade, J., Salvato, M., Sanders, J., Santangelo, A., Sasaki, M., Scheuerle, H., Schmid, C., Schmitt, J., Schwope, A., Shirshakov, A., Steinmetz, M., Stewart, I., Strüder, L., Sunyaev, R., Tenzer, C., Tiedemann, L., Trümper, J., Voron, V., Weber, P., Wilms, J., & Yaroshenko, V.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
- Space Research Institute (RU)
- Scientific and Production Association. S.A. Lavochkin (RU)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio (IT)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- National Observatory of Athens (GR)
- European Space Astronomy Centre (ES)
- Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (DE)
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Russian Federal Space Agency (RU)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Publisher
- EDP Sciences
- Published
- 2021-02-26
- Volume
- 647
- Issue
- A1
- Pages
- A1
- ISSN
- 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
- 1432-0746
- OpenAlex
- W3092490645
- Cited by
- 897
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 97 · 2025: 179 · 2024: 218 · 2023: 154 · 2022: 135 · 2021: 106 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 64.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Universität Hamburg
- Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
- Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Keywords
- eROSITA, X-ray telescopes, all-sky survey, soft X-ray imaging, hard X-ray imaging, galaxy clusters, large-scale structure, dark energy, active galactic nuclei, supermassive black hole evolution, X-ray binaries, on-orbit performance, instrument calibration
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