Einstein Probe
Launch Date: January 9, 2024
End of Operations: Mission duration of 3 years (5 years as a goal)
The Einstein Probe (EP) is a mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany, dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics. Its primary goals are to discover high-energy transients and monitor variable objects. To achieve this, EP employs a very large instantaneous field-of-view (3600 square degrees), along with moderate spatial resolution (FWHM ~5 arcmin) and energy resolution in the 0.5-5 keV energy band. EP has also the capability of performing fast and deep follow-up observations in the 0.5-10 keV energy band (effective area 2*300 cm2 @ 1 keV; half-power diameter, HPD, ~30 arcsec), as well as of quick downlink of transient alert messages.
| Instruments | Energy Range | Field of View | Localization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wide Field X-ray Telescope | 0.5 - 4 keV | 3600 deg2 | 2 arcmin |
| Follow-up X-ray Telescope | 0.5 – 10 keV | 60 arcmin diameter | 5-15 arcsec (90% c.l.) |
JSON-Serialized GCN Notices Types in GCN Kafka:
| Type | Contents | Latency |
|---|---|---|
gcn.notices.einstein_probe.wxt.alert | Localization, Count Rate, Significance | ~1 min |
Yearly Trigger Rates:
| Instrument | Type | Rates |
|---|---|---|
| WXT | GRBs, other transients, and non-astrophysical triggers | ~100 |