The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) launched its Einstein Probe on January 9, 2024, kicking off its mission to observe the X-ray sky.
It was lifted off on a Chang Zheng (Long March) 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China.
Key points
- Einstein Probe will survey the sky and hunt for bursts of X-ray light from mysterious objects such as neutron stars and black holes.
- Einstein Probe is a collaboration led by CAS with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany.
- Einstein Probe is equipped with two instruments: the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) and the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT).
- The design of WXT’s optics is inspired by the eyes of lobsters; in a modular layout, it employs hundreds of thousands square fibres that channel light onto the detectors.
- This gives Einstein Probe the unique capability to observe nearly one tenth of the celestial sphere in a single glance.
X-rays
- X-rays are emitted from celestial bodies that are extremely hot.
- Astronomers study them to learn more about black holes, galaxy clusters, stars that have exploded and other high-energy events that have long remained elusive.
What is special about Lobsters eyes?
- Lobsters have specialized eyes that can sense motion in low-light environments. By mimicking their unique structure, scientists can build visual equipment, or optics, for missions outside of Earth’s orbit aiming to capture stray X-rays.
- Lobsters have developed specialized eyes to see in their dark, murky habitats located up to around 2,300 feet below the ocean surface.
- Though they can’t see images well, these crustaceans excel in sensing motion.
- Unlike humans, whose eyes consist of rounded lenses that refract light, lobsters’ eyes depend on reflection.
- Each of their two eyes comprise up to 10,000 square-shaped tubes that are packed together. Each tube is lined with a flat, reflective surface that acts like a mirror to direct incoming light down to the retina.
- These tiny cells can trap light and focus it onto a layer of photoreceptors in the eye. This setup affords lobsters a full 180-degree view, compared with humans’ 120-degree vision.
