Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma telescope 17/06/2019 – Posted in: Daily News

SPECTRUM-ROENTGEN-GAMMA TELESCOPE

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topic cover: SRG telescope, Mission and Aim, Applications

 

News Flash

New space Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma telescope will create a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray map of the universe and unveil unknown supermassive black holes, dark energy and stars.

The joint mission of German and Russian scientists will be launched into space on a Russian-built Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 21, 2019.

 

Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma telescope will carry two independent X-ray telescopes:

  • A German-built eROSITA (Extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array)
  • A Russian-built ART-XC (Astronomical Roentgen Telescope — X-ray Concentrator)

 

Mission Aim

  • The mission will survey the entire sky and track the evolution of the universe and dark energy.
  • It will also detect millions of supermassive black holes and X-rays from stars in the Milky Way.

 

Background

  • SRG was first proposed in 1987, by Russian astrophysicists, but the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to the plans’ cancellation.
  • It was again revived in 2004, but a proposal to send an X-ray telescope to the International Space Station was scrapped when NASA ended its space-shuttle program in 2011.
  • Finally, the joint mission was approved by the German space agency and Roscosmos later in 2009.

 

Source: Down to Earth

 

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