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Striking ultraviolet images from XMM-Newton:
Extreme stellar activity and the supermassive black hole in M81 |
| The Optical Monitor telescope onboard XMM-Newton has obtained one of the most striking ultraviolet pictures ever taken of the 'LINER' galaxy M81. Strong ultraviolet (UV) emission is a feature of star formation, supernova explosions and the accretion of matter by a supermassive black hole. |
| Date: 19 Jun 2001 |
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| XMM-Newton peers into a stellar coffin |
| Astronomy is a painstaking discipline, requiring time and patience. Yet once in while, a string of discoveries using different telescopes occur in the same domain, each following hot on the heels of one another. Now, XMM-Newton adds the latest chapter to the story of IC443, one of the most studied supernova remnants.
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| Date: 14 Jun 2001 |
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| XMM-Newton links black hole to microquasar |
| Astronomers using XMM-Newton have presented strong new evidence on the correlation between black hole binary systems and microquasars - celestial objects that expel subatomic particles at relativistic velocities, practically at the speed of light. An XMM-Newton observation of one such microquasar in the Milky Way implies that a black hole is almost certainly lurking within. |
| Date: 18 Apr 2001 |
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| Comet provides a wealth of new X-ray data |
| Most of their time is spent frozen in the outer reaches of the solar system. But when these balls of ice
and dust, which we know as comets, decide to make an appearance, the spectacle is often grandiose.
This is mainly caused by their warming up as they approach the Sun. Astronomers then have a chance
to investigate comets closely, including at X-ray wavelengths, as XMM-Newton did at the end of January 2001. |
| Date: 21 Mar 2001 |
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| Bush fire scare at Perth ground station |
| Whilst XMM-Newton delves into the hottest places in the Universe, life down on planet Earth
can sometimes also be too warm for comfort. Pictures have become available of a bush fire
that recently threatened the X-ray observatory's tracking station near Perth. Science operations
were unaffected. |
| Date: 09 Mar 2001 |
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| "Stop monster! Show us your spectrum!" |
| One must admit that spectra, the many-varied curves that plot the number of photons and their energy,
appear to be rather uninspiring to the layman; nothing worse than a graph. But like one's body temperature
curve, they mean a lot. |
| Date: 28 Feb 2001 |
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| Review applauds XMM-Newton's greatly increased efficiency |
| After the recommendations of a first review last July of XMM-Newton science operations, ESA's
Director of Science has congratulated all those involved for greatly improving the mission's efficiency,
particularly the management of the X-ray observatory's observations. |
| Date: 23 Feb 2001 |
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| Santiago comes online |
| An extra facility has been added to the network of ground
stations used to control XMM-Newton. In addition to Perth
and Kourou, flight controllers at the European Space
Operations Centre in Darmstadt are now also using a
station in Santiago, Chile, to communicate with the
spacecraft and receive its science data. |
| Date: 16 Feb 2001 |
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| XMM-Newton geared up to serve its users even better |
| With a spacecraft behaving admirably, a greatly improved efficiency in managing observations, and the extremely high-quality science data being returned, members of the XMM-Newton Science Working Team (SWT), who met in Spain on 23-24 January, were justifiably happy. Attendance was exceptional for this last SWT in its present form. |
| Date: 02 Feb 2001 |
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| X-ray view into a starburst galaxy |
| Luminous starburst galaxies are where a lot of young stars are currently forming. They come in two
different varieties: starbursts where the star creation is spread evenly throughout the galaxy and those
where it is concentrated at its nucleus. Sometimes activity at the centre is so intense that fantastic
'bubbles' are created giving rise to streams of hot gas, or 'superwinds'. XMM-Newton has recently
gained new insights into one such starburst galaxy, NGC 253. |
| Date: 30 Jan 2001 |
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| Astronomy and Astrophysics focuses on XMM-Newton |
| The first issue this year of the European scientific journal "Astronomy and Astrophysics" has just
been published. It is a 352-page bumper edition devoted entirely to ESA's XMM-Newton mission with
no less than 56 papers describing the spacecraft, its instruments and particularly the scientific results
that have been obtained since the X-ray observatory was launched just over a year ago. |
| Date: 26 Jan 2001 |
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| XMM-Newton views the remotest quasar |
| Quasars are the most luminous known objects in the Universe. They can emit 1000 times the
energy of our entire Galaxy, and this prodigious luminosity originates from objects only the size
of our solar system. XMM-Newton has detected the X-rays of the most distant known quasar,
providing a view of the Universe when it was less than 1 billion years old. |
| Date: 16 Dec 2000 |
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| XMM-Newton discovers truly diffuse emission in M31 |
| The Andromeda galaxy (M31), only 2.6 million light years away, is an ideal field of study for X-ray astronomy.
XMM-Newton has observed its galactic centre, revealing many new point sources and the probable presence of
a very hot diffuse gas which contributes to the overal X-ray luminosity. |
| Date: 15 Dec 2000 |
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| Riders on the storm |
| Whilst producing impressive science results, ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories have been weathering a truly harsh space environment. Radiation, which can hinder observations and even damage sensitive detectors aboard the two spacecraft has, at times, exceeded expected levels. During a three-day XMM-Newton workshop held at the mission's Science Operations Centre at VILSPA at the end of November, scientists have exchanged their findings and solutions to safeguard their missions. |
| Date: 12 Dec 2000 |
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| Launch anniversary press conference: "Today XMM-Newton is challenging 15-year old concepts" |
| Providing new insights into black holes and unravelling the composition of intergalactic matter
XMM-Newton is certainly living up to its promises. The European Space Agency has presented
the first examples of the scientific results being provided by the new X-ray observatory.
Journalists had been convened to an anniversary press conference at ESA headquarters in
Paris on 6 December, practically a year after launch from Kourou. |
| Date: 06 Dec 2000 |
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| A year after lift-off, XMM-Newton is impressing the X-ray astronomy community |
| A year after launch, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is fully living up to its promise with a
steady stream of fascinating data. To mark the anniversary and to present the first sample of the
mission's scientific results, the media are invited to a press conference to be held at European Space
Agency headquarters in Paris on 6 December. |
| Date: 24 Nov 2000 |
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| Solving the X-ray background mystery |
| The long standing uncertainty over the origins of the X-ray background (XRB) may perhaps be a thing
of the past. XMM-Newton observations are backing up the view that this faint glow of X-rays pervading
the cosmos comes essentially from many individual but so-far undetected celestial objects and not just
from the hot environment within galaxies.
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| Date: 03 Nov 2000 |
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| Young stargazers visit XMM-Newton Science Centre |
| Twenty-one young European students from six countries have visited the XMM-Newton Science Operations
Centre at Villafranca, Spain. The 16-18 year olds were participants in the XMM-Newton "Stargazing"
competition held earlier this year. |
| Date: 30 Oct 2000 |
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| Science Operations Centre coping well with the steady stream of XMM-Newton data |
| An ancient castle looks over ESA's VILSPA establishment, huddled in
the hills on the outskirts of Madrid. Its medieval stonework is the
first to receive the early morning sunlight, then the line of
European flags and the large white antennae which point skywards. On
10 December last, one of these big dishes followed XMM-Newton as it
climbed into orbit. |
| Date: 19 Oct 2000 |
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| XMM-Newton examines a cataclysmic variable |
| Ominously-named "Cataclysmic Variables" - CVs for short - are not the kind of solar
systems one would like to approach. End points of stellar evolution, they are binary
systems in which one star is sucking material out of its partner. They revolve around
each other very rapidly, typically every few hours. CVs can also exhibit outbursts on
the time scale of weeks to months. XMM-Newton has been observing one such cataclysmic
variable, named OY Car. |
| Date: 19 Oct 2000 |
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