The Einstein Probe (EP, renamed 天关 in Chinese last week), launched on January 9th, 2024, is a space X-ray observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with ESA, MPE and CNES. It is detecting high-energy transient and variable sources in the X-ray band with better sensitivity and spatial resolution by at least one order of magnitude than the other operating wide-field monitoring instruments worldwide. It can also perform quick onboard follow-up observations in X-rays. Transient alerts can also be disseminated worldwide in real time or quickly to trigger follow-up observations at multi-wavelengths. EP is becoming a game-changer in the field of time-domain X-ray Astronomy. After launch, the satellite had been in the commissioning phase until July 2024, since when nominal science operations have started. So far a large number of bright X-ray transients and highly variable sources have been detected and some extensively followed up and studied by the EP science team and by the wider community. This talk will introduce the science capability of EP and showcase some of its early results, with emphasis on transient science.
BIO
Dr. Weimin Yuan is lead of High-energy Astrophysics Group at Space Science Division, National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC), CAS. His research has been concerned with X-ray and high-energy astrophysics for three decades, both observationally and experimentally. He has been working on studies of active galactic nuclei and high-energy transients, as well as building space X-ray instruments. He obtained his Bachelor in Natural Science (Astrophysics) from Beijing Normal University, Master in Astrophysics from Beijing Observatory, CAS and PhD from Technical University of Munich (TUM)/Max-Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), Germany. Afterwards he worked as a postdoc for the development of the MAXI mission at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center, Japan, and later in X-ray astronomy at IoA, University of Cambridge, UK. He joined CAS in 2004, first at Yunnan Observatory and has joined NAOC since 2010. He is also an adjunct professor at University of CAS, teaching a course on high-energy astrophysics. Dr. Yuan is Principal Investigator of CAS’s Einstein Probe mission since its proposal phase in 2013.
Host: Wei Cui
