Scientific Seminars

e-Rosita: clusters and AGN surveys

Andrea Merloni
MPE

2011-09-28    14:00    Brera - Sala corridoio strumenti

eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the core instrument on the Russian Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission which is current scheduled for launch in September 2013. eROSITA will perform a deep survey of the entire X-ray sky. In the soft band (0.5-2 keV), it will be about 30 times more sensitive than ROSAT, while in the hard band (2-8 keV) it will provide the first ever true imaging survey of the sky. The design driving science is the detection of large samples of galaxy clusters to redshifts z > 1 in order to study the large scale structure in the Universe and test cosmological models including Dark Energy. In addition, eROSITA is expected to yield a sample of around 3 million AGN, including obscured objects, revolutionizing our view of the evolution of supermassive black holes. The survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including X-ray binaries, active stars and diffuse emission within the Galaxy. In this talk I will present the main characteristics of the mission and focus on the scientific drivers for extragalactic all-sky surveys of Clusters of Galaxies and AGN.