Post by firoj1414 on Feb 14, 2024 6:17:10 GMT -5
Astronomers have unveiled the largest and most detailed X-ray map of the universe ever created. Newly released data reveals light from more than monstrous black holes, a mysterious "bridge" of gas connecting distant galaxies and hundreds of thousands of other "exotic" deep space objects. The massive new release of X-ray data comes courtesy of the All-Sky Survey, a mission to scan the entire sky from December 2019 to June 2020 using the eROSITA X-ray telescope. In that time, the study detected more than 170 million according to a study. statement from the Max Planck Society in Germany, which helped manage the mission. "These are mind-blowing numbers for X-ray astronomy," Andrea Merloni, principal investigator of eROSITA and lead author of a new paper describing the breadth of the mission's findings, said in the statement.
We have detected more sources in 6 months than the large flagship missions XMM-Newton and Chandra have done in almost 25 years of operation," Merloni added, referring to the X-ray telescopes currently operated by the European Space Agency and NASA, respectively. X-rays are a form of high-energy radiation that is invisible to the naked eye. Most X-ray emissions in space come from French Guiana Email List concentrations of extremely hot gases, which can arise from massive galaxy clusters; the remains of supernova explosions, such as the famous Crab Nebula ; or active black holes that can eclipse entire galaxies as hot, fast-moving matter plummets into their insatiable maw. The study of cosmic X-rays can not only discover massive, high-energy objects like these, but also reveal the overall structure of the universe itself.
Related: The oldest X-ray-spitting quasar in the universe could reveal how the largest black holes were born An X-ray image of eROSITA with the newly discovered filament between two galaxy clusters separated by more than 42 million light years. (Image credit: Dietl et al. (2024)) One of the most intriguing new discoveries to emerge from the study is a huge “filament” or bridge of hot gas. connecting two galaxy clusters across more than 42 million light years (more than times the length of the Milky Way). The filament is believed to be a piece of the cosmic web — the vast superhighway of gas that powers all the galaxies in the universe and reveals the empty spaces where elusive dark matter is believed to dwell. (The research has not yet been peer-reviewed. In addition to publishing the latest batch of data, project researchers have submitted more than 50 papers to scientific journals analyzing a small fraction of the new findings.
We have detected more sources in 6 months than the large flagship missions XMM-Newton and Chandra have done in almost 25 years of operation," Merloni added, referring to the X-ray telescopes currently operated by the European Space Agency and NASA, respectively. X-rays are a form of high-energy radiation that is invisible to the naked eye. Most X-ray emissions in space come from French Guiana Email List concentrations of extremely hot gases, which can arise from massive galaxy clusters; the remains of supernova explosions, such as the famous Crab Nebula ; or active black holes that can eclipse entire galaxies as hot, fast-moving matter plummets into their insatiable maw. The study of cosmic X-rays can not only discover massive, high-energy objects like these, but also reveal the overall structure of the universe itself.
Related: The oldest X-ray-spitting quasar in the universe could reveal how the largest black holes were born An X-ray image of eROSITA with the newly discovered filament between two galaxy clusters separated by more than 42 million light years. (Image credit: Dietl et al. (2024)) One of the most intriguing new discoveries to emerge from the study is a huge “filament” or bridge of hot gas. connecting two galaxy clusters across more than 42 million light years (more than times the length of the Milky Way). The filament is believed to be a piece of the cosmic web — the vast superhighway of gas that powers all the galaxies in the universe and reveals the empty spaces where elusive dark matter is believed to dwell. (The research has not yet been peer-reviewed. In addition to publishing the latest batch of data, project researchers have submitted more than 50 papers to scientific journals analyzing a small fraction of the new findings.