eROSITA's first Survey marks a new era in X-ray Astronomy with 900,000 sources

Written by Copernical Team Thursday, 01 February 2024 20:44

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Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 01, 2024

In a significant stride for X-ray astronomy, the German eROSITA consortium has unveiled data from the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA telescope, stationed on the Spectrum-RG (SRG) satellite. This landmark release, encapsulating around 900,000 distinct X-ray sources, forms the largest X-ray catalogue to date. The consortium also issued a series of scientific papers today, spanning topics from

eROSITA's first Survey marks a new era in X-ray Astronomy with 900,000 sources
by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 01, 2024

In a significant stride for X-ray astronomy, the German eROSITA consortium has unveiled data from the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA telescope, stationed on the Spectrum-RG (SRG) satellite. This landmark release, encapsulating around 900,000 distinct X-ray sources, forms the largest X-ray catalogue to date. The consortium also issued a series of scientific papers today, spanning topics from planetary habitability to the unveiling of the largest cosmic structures.

This first eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS1) marks a historic milestone. In its initial six months, eROSITA has eclipsed the total number of sources identified in the 60-year legacy of X-ray astronomy. This wealth of data, now accessible to the global scientific community, promises to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe in high-energy realms.

The eRASS1 observations, conducted from December 12, 2019, to June 11, 2020, resulted in the detection of 170 million X-ray photons in the eROSITA detectors' most sensitive range (0.2-2 keV). This comprehensive catalogue emerged from meticulous processing and calibration, identifying photon concentrations against a bright, diffuse background. Following eRASS1, eROSITA has continued its celestial scan, gathering more data set for future releases.

Covering half the X-ray sky - the portion allocated to the German consortium - the eRASS1 catalogue is a trove of astronomical wonders. It lists approximately 710,000 supermassive black holes in distant galaxies, 180,000 X-ray emitting stars within our Milky Way, 12,000 galaxy clusters, and an array of exotic sources like binary stars and supernova remnants.

Andrea Merloni, eROSITA's principal investigator, expressed awe at these findings. "These are mind-blowing numbers for X-ray astronomy," he said, noting the surpassing of the combined efforts of missions like XMM-Newton and Chandra over nearly 25 years.

In coordination with this data release, the German eROSITA Consortium has submitted close to 50 new scientific publications to peer-reviewed journals. These papers, augmenting the 200 previously published by the team, delve into discoveries such as a vast filament of warm-hot gas and two 'Quasi-Periodically Erupting' black holes. The research extends to the influence of X-ray irradiation from stars on orbiting planets and the statistical analysis of flickering supermassive black holes.

Mara Salvato, spokesperson for the consortium, highlighted the survey's broad scientific impact. "The papers published by the team will speak for themselves," she stated, overseeing the collaborative effort of around 250 scientists.

This inaugural eRASS data release (DR1) presents not only the source catalogue but also detailed X-ray sky images at various energies. It even includes lists of individual photons, pinpointing their sky positions, energies, and precise arrival times. The release also comprises the necessary software for analyzing eROSITA data. To enhance the catalogue's utility, supplementary data from other wavebands have been integrated into "value-added" catalogues, enriching the pure X-ray information.

Miriam Ramos-Ceja, who leads the eROSITA Operations team, emphasized their commitment to releasing high-quality data and software. "We hope this will broaden the base of scientists worldwide working with high-energy data and help push the frontiers of X-ray astronomy," she added.

Kirpal Nandra, Director at MPE, praised the eROSITA collaboration's exemplary work in both data release and scientific discovery. "There's a lot more to come from us," he said, anticipating further global research based on the public data.

The eROSITA team, driven by its primary scientific objective to refine cosmological models using galaxy clusters, will soon release its cosmology results based on the eRASS1 clusters. This upcoming revelation, expected in about two weeks, signals yet another exciting chapter in the unfolding story of X-ray astronomy.