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Space

5 amazing things discovered by the eROSITA X-ray telescope

The eROSITA X-ray telescope’s survey of the night sky has revealed extreme and violent processes in the universe, including inexplicably strange stars and erupting black holes

By Alex Wilkins

9 February 2024

The Spektr-RG spacecraft, which carries the eROSITA X-ray telescope

The Spektr-RG spacecraft, illustrated here, carries the eROSITA X-ray telescope

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlr_de/48092029201/in/album-72157709154538987/ DLR (CC-BY 3.0)

The widest X-ray survey of the night sky has revealed some of the most extreme and violent processes in the universe, from forbidden stars to pulsating supermassive black holes, as well as tracing the universe’s overall web-like structure.

The eROSITA X-ray telescope, which was launched aboard the Russian-German Spektr-RG space observatory in 2019, is designed to capture the broadest and most sensitive view of the universe in X-rays. This…

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