The next generation of wide-area, sensitive X-ray surveys designed to map the hot and energetic Universe has arrived, thanks to eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), the core instrument on the Russian-German Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission. eROSITA high sensitivity, large field of view, high spatial resolution and survey efficiency is bound to revolutionise X-ray astronomy and deliver large legacy samples for many classes of astronomical objects in the energy range 0.2-8 keV. Over this energy range, telescopes are sensitive to the emission of millions of degrees hot gas, revealing, among others, the most massive collapsed structures of the Universe (clusters and groups of galaxies), the hot ISM of the Milky Way and the Supernova remnants that energise it, the atmospheres of neutron stars, the magnetic coronae of accretion discs around black holes. I will present an overview of the instrument capabilities, the current status of the mission, a few selected early science results and the expectations for the survey program, which has completed last December the fourth of its eight planned charts of the whole sky. Dr. Merloni will be visiting Heidelberg on Tuesday and Wednesday 3rd & 4th May and is available for meetings by arrangement through Richard Tuffs (Richard.Tuffs@mpi-hd.mpg.de).