Jurgen H. M. M. Schmitt

eROSITA on SRG

eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the core instrument on the Russian Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission which is scheduled for launch in late 2012. eROSITA is fully approved and funded by the German Space Agency DLR and the Max-Planck-Society. The instrument development is in phase C/D since fall 2009. The design driving science is the detection 100.000 Clusters of Galaxies up to redshift z ~1.3 in order to study the large scale structure in the Universe and test cosmological models, especially Dark Energy. This will be accomplished by an all-sky survey lasting for four years plus a phase of pointed observations. eROSITA consists of seven Wolter-I telescope modules, each equipped with 54 Wolter-I shells having an outer diameter of 360 mm. This would provide an effective area of ~1500 cm2 at 1.5 keV and an on axis PSF HEW of 15 arcsec resulting in an effective angular resolution of 28 - 30 arcsec, averaged over the field of view. In the focus of each mirror module, a fast frame-store pn-CCD provides a field of view of 1° in diameter.

X-rays from M-type Giants—Signs of Late Stellar Activity?

We present recent X-ray and optical observations of five M-type giants which were detected as strong X-ray sources. One of these stars, HR 5512, shows short-term variations in both X-ray flux as well as in the shape of the Hα and Ca ii H+K lines, and it rotates much faster than M-type giants usually do. No indication of binarity has been found for this star. We propose that the X-ray emission of HR 5512 is related to a large degree of stellar activity. For two other stars (15 Tri, HR 7547) radial velocity observations seem to indicate spectroscopic binarity.