19.11.2023

ESA down-selects THESEUS as one of the three M7 missions

The Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) mission has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as one of the three missions to be studied for the next ‘medium’ mission of the Agency. The Medium (or ‘M-class’) missions are a key component of ESA’s Science Programme that enable Europe to answer important scientific questions.

THESEUS is a multi-instrument mission for transient and multi-messenger astronomy. It will focus on the most distant Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and on other extreme energetic transients. The main goals of the mission are the exploration of the high redshift Universe through the explosions of the first massive stars and the identification of Gravitational Wave (GW) counterparts to fully exploit the potential of multimessenger astronomy.

The instruments on board include an X-Gamma imaging spectrometer with 2 sr Field of View (FoV), a lobster-eye Soft X-ray Imager with 0.5 sr FoV and a 0.7 m class InfraRed (IR) Telescope.

The Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics Tübingen of the University of Tübingen is strongly involved in the mission, and leads the German consortium. It also co-leads the entire mission, providing key parts to all instruments. The participation of the German Institutions will be supported by the DLR.

More info can be found here: Link