Science
EINSTEIN PROBE
Chinese-European X-ray Transient Detection Satellite · Chinese Academy of Sciences / ESA / Max Planck Institute
Right now
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Einstein Probe hunts for the universe's most violent, briefest flashes of light — X-ray bursts from colliding neutron stars, newborn black holes, and stars being torn apart, many lasting only seconds before vanishing forever. Its wide-field 'lobster-eye' optics, modeled on how an actual lobster's compound eye focuses light, let it watch nearly a full quarter of the sky simultaneously, catching transient events that a normal narrow-field telescope would almost certainly miss entirely. When it spots something, it can alert other telescopes worldwide within minutes, turning a fleeting cosmic flicker into a coordinated multi-observatory chase.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 351–359 mi (564–578 km)
- Inclination
- 29.0°
- One orbit
- 95.9 minutes15.0 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 58753
- Int’l designator
- 2024-007A
- Launched
- 2024
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.