A space telescope launched in July 2019 has just completed its first survey. For months, the eROSITA telescope aboard the Spektr-RG space observatory has been scanning the entire sky, collecting observations for the deepest all-sky survey in X-ray wavelengths.

Now, all those data have been compiled into a map containing over 1 million bright X-ray objects - approximately doubling the number of such objects from the entire 60 years of X-ray astronomy prior.

"This all-sky image completely changes the way we look at the energetic universe," said astrophysicist Peter Predehl, eROSITA principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE). "We see such a wealth of detail - the beauty of the images is really stunning."

Most astronomical objects emit X-rays, but in different proportions to other wavelengths. X-rays have very short wavelengths, and are therefore very high energy - emitted by the hottest and most energetic objects, like black holes, neutron stars, quasar galaxies, and supernova remnants.

X-rays are invisible to the naked human eye, like radio waves. So, the sky in X-ray looks very different from what we see when we look up at night. In addition, and unlike radio waves, X-rays are mostly blocked by Earth's atmosphere, so the only way we can study them is by sending telescopes into space.

A number of X-ray telescopes have been deployed, but the most recent X-ray all-sky survey was conducted decades ago, from 1990 to 1999 by the ROSAT satellite. The new sky map collected by the joint German-Russian eROSITA is, the team says, four times deeper than the map extracted from ROSAT data.

It's been painstaking work. The Spektr-RG space observatory is in one of Earth's Lagrangian points, a gravitationally stable pocket created by the interaction between Earth and the Sun, about 1.5 million kilometres away.

The instrument collected 182 days' worth of data, each exposure between 150-200 seconds, totalling 165 gigabytes. Each day, the team would connect to the satellite to downlink what it had collected. Then all those raw data had to be processed and put together.

"We were all eagerly awaiting the first all-sky map from eROSITA," said astrophysicist Mara Salvato of MPE. "Large sky areas have already been covered at many other wavelengths, and now we have the X-ray data to match. We need these other surveys to identify the X-ray sources and understand their nature."

Most of the sources in the map - around 77% - are supermassive black holes actively accreting material in the cores of galaxies, or what we call active galactic nuclei. These objects are extremely energetic, and there are a lot of them out there. There are also clusters of galaxies, glowing in X-rays because of the hot gas constrained by their collective gravity; these make up around 2% of the objects.

Other objects are a lot closer to home. Within the Milky Way, stars with hot, magnetically active coronae make up 20% of the objects. The remaining 1% is made up of an assortment - bright X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, and flares, such as those emitted by stars torn apart by black holes.

The map also reveals the structure of the hot gas within the Milky Way galaxy, and the gas that surrounds it. It's a wealth of data poised to unlock a great deal of insight into the X-ray Universe. And it's just the beginning. Over the next few years, the observatory will conduct seven more surveys, which will combine for a vastly more sensitive overall map of the sky.

"With a million sources in just six months, eROSITA has already revolutionised X-ray astronomy, but this is just a taste of what's to come. This combination of sky area and depth is transformational," said astrophysicist Kirpal Nandra of MPE.

"We are already sampling a cosmological volume of the hot Universe much larger than has been possible before. Over the next few years, we'll be able to probe even further, out to where the first giant cosmic structures and supermassive black holes were forming."

We can't wait.

SOURCE: https://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-what-the-entire-sky-looks-like-through-x-ray-eyes

You can also watch this video to learn more about the eROSITA telescope:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPvNbTN2V8M

Nice Write up

This is beautiful..... God is good

marshalcarter:
This is beautiful..... God is good

All the Time

Nice one

Stunning indeed.

Stunning wealth surrounding the milky way even the outter space

The Universe is just so big and infinite yet some people think of themselves as too special.

I just love how entriging space stuffs are...pardon my english

Beautiful

I wan travel go space, the Galaxy that send signal to my dish isn't responding, I wan go touch am small..

Abeg una see God or anybody there?

rufdiamond:
Abeg una see God or anybody there?

they shifted the Throne above the heavens and skies to take this picture

marshalcarter:
This is beautiful..... God is good

Science is better

wow!!! The Earth is indeed Magnificent.

I opened this page thinking this is the work of Thesorcerer, disappointed tho... But wait, they're two?!

the first picture looks like ogbonor soup

Raeheemwayne:
wow!!! The Earth is indeed Magnificent.

if Earth is magnificent, the universe is what

Edopesin:

if Earth is magnificent, the universe is what

In our expanding Universe; the earth is nothing special.

Raeheemwayne:

In our expanding Universe; the earth is nothing special.

Exactly!

Interestingly Interesting

TheSourcerer:
they shifted the Throne above the heavens and skies to take this picture

Do you expect to find the One who built the Universe in the Space ... Wise up

Bhorbymills1990:


Do you expect to find the One who built the Universe in the Space ... Wise up

I'm an Atheist so stay off please

Universe keeps expanding

There are trillions of Planet out there.. Earth is just too trivial compared to other planet unknown to our short-eyed astronomer and Scientist

There are millions of Milky ways which have numbers of Planet in it space

To also think all these creation keeps expanding shows how Magnificent, Powerful and Creative the Almighty God is.

You are nothing, Yes!
We are nothing!

Drop your shoulders and live peacefully.

Peace!

Honestly didn't read the okoto write up. Went straight to look at the picture(s)

im pretty sure almost 100% of d ppl dat entered dis thread did'nt read d writtings. They only came for d pictures

TheSourcerer:
I'm an Atheist so stay off please

U better be theist

Amazing

This beautiful world