Speaker
Description
The power of eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), the soft X-ray instrument on the Russian–German Spectrum–Roentgen–Gamma (SRG) mission, is high sensitivity at high spectral, spatial, and temporal resolution over a large field of view. This is achieved by combining 7 coaligned X-ray telescope modules, each composed of 54 paraboloid/hyperboloid mirror shells in a Wolter–I geometry, to focus the X–rays through optical blocking filters onto PN-CCDs with a total of 1 million pixels, providing a spectral resolution of 60 – 160 eV FWHM over an energy range 0.2 – 8 keV and a 1-degree field of view at a time resolution of 50 ms. In order to make full scientific use of the unique capabilities of eROSITA, it is essential to know quantitatively how the instrument modifies the incident signal. Therefore, all of its components have to be calibrated. I will report on the extensive and often challenging calibration activities performed on ground and in space.
