The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) new facility, SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter), is expected to make observations of time-critical astronomical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and asteroids passing close to Earth.

From its new home on ESO’s 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope, SOXS is unique. It can be used to quickly observe transient cosmic events, at large distances or closer to home. 

The new facility will allow astronomers to unlock lots of new information about these elusive, yet fascinating, astronomical objects.

Welcoming the news, Professor Stephen Smartt from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s, who also works at Oxford University, says: “The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) saw the opportunity to get involved early and funded the detector procurement from e2V Teledyne. We purchased a truly excellent detector, virtually free from cosmetic defects with excellent efficiency. 

“Maximising efficiency in every component was key to the SoXS concept. When you consider the throughput gains, and simultaneous wavelength coverage, we have built an instrument about 10 times more efficient than the existing two instruments."

He adds: “In the UK we have led the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) which surveyed the sky for most energetic explosions in the Universe. It was incredibly successful but now we have an instrument 10 times better and twice the amount of telescope time. With the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and time starting later this year, we are in a great position to follow-up its discoveries.”

Dr Matt Nicholl from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen’s explains: “Scientists at Queen’s and Oxford have built a fast, efficient data reduction and analysis pipeline. This will produce science ready data in real time, with no delay, so our rapid follow-up with SoXS will be followed by rapid public data releases, often within 24hrs."

He adds: “As we move to surveying the whole visible sky every day, speed of instruments and data analysis is essential to discover the fastest evolving sources which are associated with black holes and neutron stars.  The software pipeline is a key integral part of the whole instrument concept and our Research Software Engineer Dr Dave Young, designed and wrote the whole software, funded by STFC.”

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