View an X-ray picture of half the sky in detail here: Black holes, galaxies, and 900,000 stars were discovered

View an X-ray picture of half the sky in detail here: Black holes, galaxies, and 900,000 stars were discovered

The first half of the SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey (eRASS1) data is now available to the public, thanks to the German eROSITA Consortium (eROSITA-DE).

In the early Dark Ages of the universe, more than 12 billion years ago, when the supermassive black hole was thought to reach the size of 20 billion suns, astronomers have gazed back.

"The largest and most detailed X-ray map of the universe ever made" was shown by astronomers on January 31. An X-ray image of half of the sky, including around a million high-energy cosmic sources, is included in the data. Over 700,000 supermassive black holes are among them.

The Germany-based research group said in a study that "the first eROSETA All-Sky Survey Catalog (eRASS1) is the most extensive collection of X-ray sources ever published, including approximately 900,000 individual sources."

The soft Erosity X-ray imaging telescope on board the Spectrum-RG (SRG) satellite obtained the first set of sky-survey data. "eROSITA All-Sky Survey Catalog (eRASS1)" is the name of this catalog.

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal published the paper. The catalogs that are being shown are a part of the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey's initial data release (DR1).

View the 'X-ray picture of half the sky' in full here.

In December 2019, the eROSITA telescope started its sky survey "with the primary objective of producing all-sky X-ray source lists and sky maps of unprecedented depth," according to the study article.

It reported finding around 930,000 entries (of X-ray sources). A record 170 million X-ray photons were found by the telescope.

Using data collected throughout the first six months of survey operations over half the sky, astronomers published catalogs of both point-like and extended sources, "the proprietary rights with regard to data of which are held by the German Aerosita Consortium".

What on earth is going on? An examination of the "mind-boggling statistics"

A statement from the German Max Planck Society states that among the 9,00,000 sources are "180,000 X-ray emitting stars in our own galaxy, 12,000 clusters," and around 7,10,000 supermassive black holes (active galactic nuclei) in distant galaxies. Are as individuals." Galaxies, as well as a small number of the remaining exotic classes such as X-ray emitting binary stars, supernova remnants, pulsars and other types of objects".

These astounding figures for

He said, "We have detected more sources in 6 months than the large flagship missions XMM-Newton combined Chandra have detected in nearly 25 years of operation."

Why is this data so striking?

According to the report, the primary catalog "increases the number of known X-ray sources in the published literature by more than 60%". A thorough list of all types of X-ray celestial bodies, including a variety of physical processes, is also provided.