aboard a Chinese Long March rocket, is currently undergoing testing and calibration of its instruments as it orbits the Earth at an altitude of 600 kilometers . Its first observations were revealed at a symposium in Beijing.
Lobster-eye X-ray vision has previously been deployed on missions that study the solar wind, on interplanetary missions, and on a technology demonstrator mission called in 2022. Einstein Probe, however, is the first to employ lobster-eye optics in a space telescope.
Even though it is still in the testing phase, WXT in particular is already proving its purpose. The Beijing symposium revealed that WXT found its first X-ray transient on Feb. 19, an event associated with aproduced by the destruction of a massive star. Since then, WXT has discovered another 141 transients including 127 stars unleashing X-ray flares.