A decade of X-ray astronomy with XMM-Newton

A Search for X-Ray Flashes with XMM -Newton

We searched for X-ray flashes (XRFs) – which we defined as ∼10 s duration transient X-ray events observable in the 0.4-15 keV passband – in fields observed using XMM -Newton with the EPIC/pn detector. While we find two non-Poissonian events, the astrophysical nature of the events is not confirmed in fully simultaneous observations with the EPIC/MOS detectors, and we conclude that the events are...

X-Ray Observations of Neutron Stars with XMM-Newton & Chandra

Detection of Saturnian X-ray Emission with Xmm-newton

The giant planet Saturn was observed by XMM-Newton in September 2002. We present and analyse these XMM-Newton observations and compare our findings to the Chandra observations of Saturn. Contamination of the XMM-Newton data by optical light is found to be severe in the medium and thin filters, but with the thick filter all optical light is sufficiently blocked and the signal observed in the thi...

An X-ray Survey in SA 57 with XMM-Newton

Context. The maximum number density of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), as deduced from X-ray studies, occurs at z <∼1, with lower luminosity objects peaking at smaller redshifts. Optical studies lead to a different evolutionary behaviour, with a number density peaking at z ≈2 independently of the intrinsic luminosity, but this result is limited to active nuclei brighter than the host galaxy. A s...

X-ray background measurements with XMM-Newton EPIC

We discuss the methods used to compile a high signal-to-noise dataset representative of both the instrumental and cosmic background signal measured at high galactic latitude by the XMM-Newton EPIC cameras. The characteristics of the EPIC background are described and the potential applications of the derived dataset in general science analysis are outlined. In the case of the cosmic X-ray backgr...