Spektr-RG:
Astronomers report the discovery of a new pulsar using the Spektr-RG space observatory.
- Spektr-Rentgen-Gamma (Spektr-RG, SRG) is a German-Russian high-energy astrophysics space observatory to study the universe in the X-ray range of electromagnetic radiation.
- It was launched on July 13, 2019, on a Proton-M rocket from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
- It moves along a so-called halo orbit around the outer Lagrange point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system at a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth with a period of about 6 months.
- A Lagrange point is a position in space where the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
- The primary instrument of the mission is eROSITA, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany.
- It is designed to conduct a seven-year X-ray survey, the first in the medium X-ray band less than 10 keV energies, and the first to map an estimated 100,000 galaxy clusters.
- This survey may detect new clusters of galaxies and active galactic nuclei.
- The second instrument, ART-XC, is a Russian high-energy X-ray telescope capable of detecting supermassive black holes.
- It is intended to replace the Spektr-R, known as the “Russian Hubble”.
- Spektr-R was launched in 2011 to observe black holes, neutron stars, and magnetic fields, aiding understanding of cosmic expansion.
