Erosita is a space telescope designed to map the distribution of hot gas in the Universe. It is equipped with an X-ray mirror with a diameter of 7 m and a field of view of 1 degree. The telescope will be launched into orbit by a Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 13, 2019.
Erosita is a joint project of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The telescope is named after Eros, the god of love in Greek mythology.
The main scientific goal of Erosita is to answer the question of how galaxies and clusters form and evolve. To do this, Erosita will map about 100 million galaxies over the entire sky in X-rays.
Erosita will also search for clusters of galaxies that are just beginning to form, as well as groups and pairs of galaxies that are in the process of merging. By studying these objects, astronomers hope to gain insights into how structure forms in our Universe.
X-ray observations are ideally suited for this task because they can penetrate through dense regions of gas and dust that block visible light.