According to media reports,China will launch a new X-ray astronomy satellite named Einstein Probe by the end of 2023.

It is another space science satellite launched by the second phase of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Space Science Pilot Project, following Taiji No. 1, Huairou No. 1 and Kuafu No. 1. The European Space Agency, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and the French Space Agency are also participating in the satellite project.

According to Yuan Weimin, chief scientist of the Einstein Probe satellite and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, WeiThe star is in the final stage of development.

Scientists have designed a special new type of X-ray telescope, inspired by the strange focusing imaging principle of lobster eyes, that also has a large field of view and greater detection sensitivity.

Thanks to the lobster-eye technology, the Einstein Probe satellite can perform large-field, high-sensitivity, and fast time-domain surveys in soft X-ray wavebands that are currently poorly understood.

It can capture the first light from supernovae, help search for and pinpoint the source of gravitational waves, and discover more distant, fainter objects and fleeting mysteries in the universe.

The universe is full of spectacular and amazing temporary and explosive sources, most of which radiate enormous amounts of energy in a very short period of time, showing complex changes in brightness in the X-ray band, fading in and out, such as the black hole that is eating a star, or the brilliant "fireworks" that explode when a star dies.

The X-ray Imaging Laboratory of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to develop the lobster eye X-ray imaging technology in 2010. After years of research on key technologies, the breakthrough was finally made.Fully mastered the technology, and has complete independent intellectual property rights.

The project team tested and verified the technology on the Space New Technology test satellite launched in July 2022, and obtained and publicly released the wide-field X-ray focusing imaging sky map for the first time in the world.

Paul Bryan, a professor at the University of Leicester, praised the technologyIt will provide a transformative boost to cosmic X-ray monitoring and demonstrates the enormous scientific potential of Einstein's probe.