Einstein Probe in a nutshell

Einstein Probe will study the Universe in X-ray light. Equipped with a new generation of X-ray instruments with high sensitivity and a very wide view, this mission will survey the sky and hunt for powerful blasts of X-ray light coming from mysterious celestial objects such as neutron stars and black holes.

Some of the key questions that Einstein Probe will help answer are: How common are black holes and how do they swallow matter? What powers the jets of high-energy particles being spewed out from discs of blazing material circling these exotic objects? What kind of events produce gravitational waves? What happens when a star explodes and goes supernova?

To achieve its science goals, the Einstein Probe spacecraft is equipped with a new generation of instruments with high sensitivity and the ability to observe large areas of the sky: the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) and the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT).

Einstein Probe is a collaboration led by CAS with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany. In return for contributing to the development of this mission and the definition of its scientific goals, ESA will get access to 10% of the data generated by Einstein Probe’s observations.

Find out more here.