A partial X-ray map of the universe has been released with the help of the Erosita Space Telescope!
In early 2024, the German-based Max Planck Society released a detailed X-ray map of the universe. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Society used the high-tech eROSITA X-ray telescope, a joint Russian-German project, to collect a large amount of data on cosmic objects and create a partial X-ray map of the universe. This cosmic map contains more than 900,000 cosmic objects. Of these, more than 700,000 are supermassive black holes, as well as about 12,000 galaxy cluster groups.
In addition, our Milky Way galaxy includes some mysterious cosmic objects such as 180,000 X-ray-emitting stars, pulsars, supernova remnants, binary stars and other X-ray sources. Through this space survey or research, scientists are trying to understand the structure and properties of supermassive black holes in the cosmic structure. Moreover, this survey also provides new insights into the vast cosmic phenomena. Scientists are hopeful that this will open a new horizon for effective research on space in the future.
One of the most exciting and new discoveries in this long-term and ambitious space study is the existence of a huge "filament" or bridge of hot gas connecting two galaxy clusters spanning more than 42 million light-years (more than 400 times the length of the Milky Way). Scientists believe this bridge of hot gas or filament is part of the cosmic web. And according to their research, this huge superhighway of very mysterious gas may be hiding invisible forces such as dark matter and dark energy.
Scientists from the Max Planck Society collected data on this huge amount of cosmic objects from December 12, 2019 to June 11, 2020 under a project called 'Erosita All Sky Survey'. In addition, in this long-term research and observation of space, scientists have detected the existence of more than 170 million high-energy photon particles scanning space with the highly sensitive (0.2-2 keV) sensor of the ground-based eROSITA telescope. Scientists are still intensively researching these particles.
Meanwhile, scientists believe that this connecting bridge of gas connecting millions of galaxy cluster groups spread across space is part of the cosmic web. According to them, this gas filament or super cosmic highway in space is constantly giving something to all the galaxies around it. This means that this mysterious cosmic gas store is playing an important role in the formation of planets and stars in large galaxies. It also identifies the precise location of vast empty spaces or void regions in space.
Scientists associated with this space X-ray mapping project have said that more than 200 research papers have already been published using the information obtained from this project. Out of which, about 50 or more research papers have been submitted to various international science and research-based journals. Although these research papers have discussed only a very small part of the information obtained from the eROSITA telescope. And new research papers are still being published analyzing the data from this project.
Space scientists involved in the X-ray mapping project in space hope to continue their exploration and research activities with the eROSITA telescope. This high-tech X-ray telescope is located at the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) Space Observatory. The telescope is currently operated jointly by Germany and Russia. It was designed and built with technical support and leadership from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE).
The eROSITA telescope is a highly sensitive X-ray telescope. It is capable of providing sharp images of the deep sky in the energy range (~0.2-8 keV). The telescope is equipped with seven identical Wolter-1 mirror modules. Each module has 54 nested mirror shells to meet the required sensitivity. In addition, a new detector system/sensor has been developed by MPE based on XMM-Newton pn-CCD technology.
It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Land-Based Space Center in Russia on July 13, 2019, and placed in a halo orbit around the L-2 point. It conducted its Calibration and Performance Verification (Cal-PV) program from mid-September to mid-December 2019. The X-ray telescope has already conducted a large-scale survey of space, mapping the entire cosmic sphere once every six months.
Eight such all-sky charts are planned to be implemented by December 2023. In fact, the telescope is designed to study the large-scale structure of the universe, as well as closely observe, detect, or test cosmological models, including dark matter and dark energy. Space scientists expect it to detect millions of active galactic nuclei, including both bright and dim cosmic objects.
References:- Poplar Science, NASA, New Atlas, Live Science, Space.com, Max Planck Institute.
