The Most Detailed X-Ray Map of Universe Revealed

All images: Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science; NASA

Thousands of Stars, Galaxies and Black Holes Found

Astronomers unveiled the most detailed X-ray map of the universe. The map reveals the presence of over 700,000 monster black holes, 180,000 stars, and 12,000 clusters of galaxies.

Germany Behind the Creation of the Map

Germany is behind the creation of the X-Ray map. The data was collected by the eRosita X-ray telescope on board the Spektrum-RG satellite during the first all-sky survey. The first eRosita All-Sky Survey Catalogue (eRASS1) is the largest collection of X-ray sources ever published, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science said in a statement.

A 6-Month Long Mission that Scanned the Universe

The eROSITA All-Sky Survey scanned the universe for six months- from Dec 12, 2019, to June 11, 2020. During this period, the mission detected more than 170 million X-ray photons in the sky, which astronomers later identified as roughly 900,000 distinct objects in space.

'Mind-Blowing Numbers'

Reacting to the mission's findings, eROSITA principal investigator Andrea Merloni said, "These are mind-blowing numbers for X-ray astronomy." Merloni added, "We've detected more sources in 6 months than the big flagship missions XMM-Newton and Chandra have done in nearly 25 years of operation."