Participants in the Spektr-RG project announced an important achievement. As reported by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS), the orbital observatory has formed one third of its first X-ray map of the entire sky.
Spektr-RG is a Russian-German project aimed at exploring the Universe in the X-ray wavelength range. The observatory, successfully launched last summer, carries on board the ART-XC (Russian Federation) and eRosita (Germany) X-ray telescopes.
It is reported that during the first survey of the entire sky on the Russian half of the map, the number of registered X-ray sources exceeded 95 thousand. This generally corresponds to the expectations of scientists.
The presented image (see below) shows that the longest exposure and source density (per square degree) are accumulated in the region of the ecliptic poles (the figure shows the north pole), where all sky scans intersect. The inset on the left shows the “rich” cluster of galaxies A 426, on the right is the brightest remnant of a supernova explosion (Cas A) in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Let us note that the Spektr-RG observatory is currently implementing a comprehensive scientific program, which is designed for four years. During this time, eight complete surveys of the celestial sphere will be made. Combining these independent cards will make it possible to achieve a sensitivity record.
Source: 3dnews.ru
