CubeSats Reach the Millisecond X-Ray Domain: Crab Pulsar Timing with SpIRIT/HERMES
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites (HERMES) instrument is a compact X-/gamma-ray spectrometer operating on board the 6U (11 kg) Space Industry–Responsive–Intelligent–Thermal (SpIRIT) CubeSat. The payload is particularly well suited for the observation of cosmic transients such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and bright pulsars thanks to its unique broadband sensitivity from a few keV to a few MeV and temporal resolution down to half a microsecond. We report the detection of the ∼33 ms double-peaked pulse profile of the Crab Pulsar, obtained by considering the canonical Crab ephemerides as provided by the Jodrell Bank catalog. We collected approximately 5.7 × 10 4 photons from 730 s of observations in the 3 keV–2 MeV energy band during a single operation, achieving a 5 σ pulse-profile significance in the 3–11.5 keV energy band with millisecond-scale binning. These results demonstrate that SpIRIT/HERMES can achieve millisecond timing accuracy at high energies and, thanks to its wide field of view and broad energy coverage, has the potential to contribute to GRB monitoring in the near future. Such capabilities were previously the domain of flagship observatories, underscoring the performance of the HERMES instrument even with its compact form factor.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: Wladimiro Leone, R. Mearns, T. di Salvo, L. Burderi, M. Thomas, M. Trenti, F. Fiore, E. J. Marchesini, R. Campana, G. Baroni, M. Dafčíková, A. Anitra, Y. Evangelista, A. Sanna, S. Puccetti, R. Iaria, S. Barraclough, M. Ortiz del Castillo, R. Bertacin, P. Bellutti, G. Bertuccio, A. Chapman, G. Cabras, F. Ceraudo, T. Chen, M. Citossi, R. Crupi, G. Della Casa, E. Demenev, G. Dilillo, M. Feroci, F. Ficorella, M. Fiorini, N. Gao, A. Guzman, P. Hedderman, A. Hudrap, C. Labanti, G. La Rosa, P. Malcovati, J. McRobbie, F. Mele, G. Molera Calvés, J. Morgan, G. Morgante, B. Negri, D. Novel, P. Nogara, A. Nuti, E. O’Brien, G. Pepponi, M. Perri, A. Picciotto, R. Piazzolla, S. Pirrotta, S. Pliego Caballero, A. Rachevski, I. Rashevskaya, A. Riggio, F. Russo, A. Santangelo, G. Sottile, C. Tenzer, Y. Tao, S. Trevisan, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, S. Xiong, S. Yi, A. Woods, S. Zhang, N. Zorzi
Institutions: University of Trento, Trieste Astronomical Observatory, National Institute for Astrophysics, University of Palermo, The University of Melbourne, University of Cagliari, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Masaryk University, Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano, Politecnico di Milano, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of High Energy Physics, University of Udine, Astronomical Observatory of Rome, University of Tübingen, University of Pavia, University of Tasmania, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,499
OpenAlex ID: W7147178667