Einstein Probe (EP) monitors the X-ray sky with unprecedented large field of view and sensitivity to discover and characterise high-energy transients and variability in soft X-rays.

Facts

• EP is an ESA mission of opportunity led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in collaboration with the German Max Planck Institute für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) and the French Centro Nacional de Estudios Espaciales (CNES).
• EP was launched on 9 January 2024, at 07:03 UTC by a Long March 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China.
• EP consists of two instruments, the Lobster Eye Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) and two Followup X-ray Telescopes (FXT).

More information can be found in the Mission Description and a detailed factsheet can be found under https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Einstein_Probe_factsheet

Useful information

• Refereed publications based on Einstein Probe data can be found in this ADS Library
• Public EP Data can be obtained from:
  • National Astronomical Data Centre (NADC) in China
    • Need to register via https://oauth.china-vo.org/user/register
  • National Space Science Data Centre (NSSDC) in China
  • ESA's Einstein Probe Science Archive (EPSA) within the Astronomy Multimission Archive. The ESA mirror archive contains public level 2 (calibrated events files) and level 3 (images, spectra, light curves) data. Level 1 (uncalibrated entry-level) data and proprietary data can only be obtained from the NSSDC archive. For details see EPSA Documentation.
• Data Analysis:
  • WXT: Analysis Threads
  • FXT : Download tools
• Helpdesk

Contact

Latest News

General at National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Opening of Data Archives

11 December 2025 EP Science Data are proprietary for a period of one year after which they shall be made publicly available. Access to data is descibed here: There are two institutes in China operating archive interfaces, the National Astronomical Data Centre (NADC) and the​​​​​​​ National Space Science Data Centre (NSSDC). ESA has opened the Einstein Probe Science Archive (EPSA) containing public, calibrated high-level data, i.e., calibrated data covering level 2 (events files) and level 3 (images, spectra, light curves); for details of ESA mirror archive, see EPSA Documentation.

Data in EPSA are calibrated with the last major calibration release. If data need to be processed with the latest calibration version, level 1 data must be obtained from the NADC or NSSDC archives and processed with the EP Data Analysis software. Further, PIs of proprietary data need to obtain their data from the NADC archive. At this time, only the FXT data are released while the WXT are planned to be released by the end of 2025.

Launch of ESA webpages of Einstein Probe

19 July 2022 These ESA webpages with information about Einstein Probe see their first light.