* Astronomy

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XMM-Newton satellite

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RE: XMM-Newton

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XMM-Newton celebrates decade of discovery

ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During its decade of operation, this remarkable space observatory has supplied new data for every aspect of astronomy. From our cosmic backyard to the further reaches of the Universe, XMM-Newton has changed the way we think of space.
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Mission extensions approved for science missions
ESA's Science Programme Committee has approved the extension of mission operations for XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, Venus Express, Mars Express and Cluster, as well as the ESA support to the operations of HST and SOHO, until 31 December 2012. An additional year of operations has been approved for Planck.

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ESA's XMM-Newton satellite being launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guyana, December 10, 1999.

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XMM-Newton was launched on 10 December 1999. In November 2005, the mission was extended until 31 March 2010. A further review of the scientific performance and of the missions status will take place around autumn 2007.

XMM-Newton, ESA's X-ray observatory, continues its quest for the unknown. This month, after five years of operations, the mission saw the publication of its 1000th scientific paper, corresponding to an equivalent number of results, in top-class scientific journals. This is not the only record-breaking figure for this X-ray 'hunter' mission.
There are several ways to measure the scientific success of a mission. One is certainly to look at the use the scientific community makes of the data obtained by the mission, and at the number, novelty and significance of the results so produced.
From the very beginning of its operations in early 2000, hundreds of scientists all around the world have been subscribing to 'book' observing time with XMM-Newton, eager to obtain data and new clues about the hidden and powerful phenomena taking place in the Universe – black holes, birth and death of stars, active galactic nuclei.
Each of the five calls for observation proposals issued so far by ESA towards the scientific community, resulted in a subscription exceeding by seven times the observing slots available. More than 1600 astronomers, an estimated 20 per cent of the world-wide community, had participated to provide their ideas for using XMM-Newton to target highly energetic, exotic and still mysterious space objects.

Scientific results based on XMM-Newton data are now being published at a steady rate of almost 300 papers per year, comparable to the famous Hubble Space Telescope.

Why this huge interest in XMM-Newton? What gives the mission such a world-class profile?

The fact is that XMM-Newton's capabilities are unprecedented and unique, with optics that are a masterpiece of engineering. Each of its three X-ray telescopes is made of 58 co-axial cylindrical mirrors, capable of reflecting X-rays coming from numerous cosmic sources onto the spacecraft special detectors. This is enabling astronomers to discover in one day more than any other X-ray mission has discovered over weeks of operations.
XMM-Newton is among the X-ray observatories with the highest spectral resolution. It is in fact with X-ray spectroscopy - the spreading of light into its components - that XMM-Newton is revealing the deepest secrets of a source, such as its chemical composition, temperature, and even its velocity.
The huge collective area of the mirrors is fundamental to obtain high-quality spectra of faint and serendipitous objects with the imaging cameras. Furthermore, with its six powerful instruments including an optical monitor with ultraviolet capabilities, this space observatory can have a look at sources in several wavelengths simultaneously.
XMM-Newton has been already unveiling many stars' secrets. Among its discoveries, it characterised for the first time X-ray spectra and light curves of some classes of proto-stars (stars being born) and provided an unprecedented insight into the X-ray variability of the corona of stars similar to our Sun.

With its capability to respond as quickly as five hours to target-of-opportunity requests for observing elusive gamma-ray bursts, this space observatory detected for the first time an X-ray halo around the bursts, where the halo appeared as concentric ring-like structures centred on the burst location.

XMM-Newton has already shed new light on supernovae remnants, as well as on neutron stars. On the latter, an exciting discovery was that of a bow shock aligned with the supersonic motion of a neutron star (called 'Geminga'), and the detection of hot spots indicating that the configuration of neutron stars magnetic field and surface temperatures are much more complex than previously thought.
These and other fundamental discoveries on clusters of galaxies, dark matter, and the way of determining mass and spin in gigantic black holes in active galactic nuclei, are only a part of the findings obtained thanks to XMM-Newton's data.

"The mission source catalogue contains detailed information on about 50 000 new X-ray sources. This will rise up to 200 000 this year, when a new catalogue is to be released. These top-class data are precious material for the astronomical community which is already making an extraordinary use of them. We are glad and proud that XMM-Newton results continue to break new ground in many scientific fields, and we are looking forward to the exciting challenges that lie ahead for the mission" - Norbert Schartel, ESA Project Scientist for XMM-Newton.

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ESA’s Science Programme Committee has extended operations of the highly successful astronomical observatories Integral and XMM-Newton for four years, until 16 December 2010 and 31 March 2010 respectively.
As usual, there will be a review of the scientific performance and of the missions status in another two years' time, around autumn 2007.

The Integral gamma-ray observatory was launched on 17 October 2002, and has been providing ever since an increasingly detailed insight into some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. These include the births and deaths of stars, supermassive black holes, neutron stars, the annihilation of matter and anti-matter, and gamma-ray bursts.
Integral is also conducting of the first detailed gamma-ray mapping of the galactic plane, and studying extra-galactic gamma-ray sources with unprecedented sensitivity.
Having already amassed a large number of scientific results and publications, the latest extension will provide even more opportunities for the scientists hoping to investigate many of the scientific issues being addressed by Integral.
With its four instruments (a gamma-ray imager and spectrometer, an X-ray monitor and an optical camera), the Integral observatory displays a unique combination of outstanding sensitivity to faint details, spectral resolution and imaging capability.

The X-ray observatory XMM-Newton was launched on 10 December 1999. Thanks to its large effective area and high throughput, it is providing important scientific results which continue to break new ground in many key areas of X-ray astrophysics.
It provides observations of all kinds of astronomical objects starting from comets and planets in our Solar System up to the most distant quasars, which are observed at a time when the Universe was only 7% of its current age (13 700 million years).
With its six instruments (three X-ray cameras, two spectrometers and a UV/Optical monitor), which operate simultaneously, the XMM-Newton observatory provides a state-of-the-art high-throughput facility featuring high spectral resolution and excellent sensitivity to provide high-quality spectra of both point and spatially extended sources.

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ESA’s orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton joins the fleet of spacecraft taking part in one of the world’s largest astronomical observation campaigns - the Deep Impact event – on 4 July 2005.

On 4 July, NASA’s Deep Impact mission will send a 370 kg copper projectile (impactor) to impact on Comet 9P/Tempel 1, to dig into the secrets of its nucleus.
Comets are very interesting celestial objects. In fact, their composition carries important information about the origin of the Solar System, as they have remained virtually unchanged since then.

X-ray observations obtained by chance during a natural outburst from Comet Hale-Bopp showed a strong increase in X-ray intensity related to the dust-rich cloud that emerged on that event.
It was decided to commission ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, one of the biggest science satellites ever built in Europe, to make X-ray spectroscopic measurements of this upcoming impact, and contribute to the rare knowledge about the properties of comets.

Spectroscopy - the spreading of light into a spectrum – is at the heart of the XMM-Newton observations and allows astronomers to measure a source’s composition.
In the same way the colour of a lamp indicates what gas is used in street lighting, the three scientific instruments on board XMM-Newton will reveal the deepest secrets of this comet, including its chemical composition and temperature.
Because the interior of a comet nucleus has been much less modified by solar radiation and cosmic rays, it is believed to be different from the surface crust and the material that sublimates there to form the comet tail. As a result of the impact, it is expected that a vast amount of this material will be released from the interior into space.

This induced outburst of the comet's nucleus and the expected X-ray emission will be observed by XMM-Newton’s three instruments. The X-ray spectrometer (RGS), the three X-ray cameras (EPIC) and its optical and ultraviolet monitor (OM) will collect information about the comet’s materials that is not usually accessible to observations.

All instruments used will operate simultaneously for a total of just over 24 hours. It is planned to observe for about 6 hours before the event and for 18 hours after it, which will allow XMM-Newton to observe changes in the composition of the ejected material.

XMM-Newton will transmit the obtained data continuously to the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain, via ESA’s mission control centre at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany.
The raw scientific data are monitored in real time by the XMM-Newton team at ESAC. Generally data processing is done in two steps: generation of data files at ESAC within 10 days and, after the observations, generation of ‘pipe-line’ products at the Survey Science Centre, Leicester, UK. But data of ‘moving’ objects, like this comet observation, require special processing that is done by the XMM-Newton team after the generation of the data files.

When not observing Comet Tempel 1, XMM-Newton’s actual mission is to help solve many cosmic mysteries of the violent Universe, from what happens in and around black holes to the formation of galaxies in the early Universe. XMM-Newton has detected more X-ray sources than any previous satellite.

Its telescope mirrors are some of the most optically efficient ever developed and, with its highly sensitive detectors, XMM-Newton sees much more than any previous X-ray satellite. XMM-Newton’s high-technology design uses over 170 wafer-thin cylindrical mirrors spread over three telescopes.

Its orbit takes it almost a third of the way to the Moon, so that astronomers can enjoy long, uninterrupted views of celestial objects.

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