XMM-NEWTON STORIES
20 years in orbit and counting...
On the 10th of December 1999 at 14:32 GMT the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory was launched and started exploring the wonders of the X-ray universe. Since its launch, XMM-Newton has simultaneously collected X-rays, visible and ultraviolet light and consistently demonstrated its role as one of the most important astronomical observatories of all time.
XMM-Newton continues supplying key new data to every aspect of astronomy: life in the universe, studying our solar system and how the activity of more distant stars impacts the habitability of their orbiting planets; extreme universe, exploring places beyond our imagination shaped by the extraordinary gravity around black holes and by shocks from the most powerful cosmic explosions; cosmology, dissecting the cosmic structure formed and evolved after the Big Bang.
XMM-Newton is paving the way for a joint adventure with Athena and LISA, exploring together the hot and energetic universe and the powerful radiative counterparts of gravitational waves, bringing sound to the cosmic movies.
We take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and interest in the mission.
The detailed programme of the Special Event held at ESAC on 10th-11th
December 2019 including links to presentations in PDF and videos of the talks can
be found in the dedicated page
Celebration Event: 20 years from launch.
Click on the image for a demo of a Virtual Reality Room run during the Event celebration.
This art installation is based on the discovery of quasi-periodic eruption (QPE) events in active galactic nuclei (AGN) by Miniutti et al. 2018 (Nature, Volume 573, Issue 7774, p 381-384) during two XMM-Newton and one Chandra observations. More specifically the observed X-ray variability is characterised by high amplitude and short (9 hours) QPEs over stable flux level. READ MORE
HEAD Meeting
Special session on XMM-Newton
Monterey, CA, USA
17-21 March 2019
"Astrophysics of hot plasma in extended X-ray sources"
XMM-Newton Workshop
ESAC, Madrid, Spain
12-14 June 2019
X-ray Astronomy
Special lecture about XMM-Newton mission
Bologna, Italy
8-13 September 2019
XMM-Newton 20th Anniversary Goddard Symposium
GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA
21-22 October 2019
Spanish X-Ray Astronomy 2019: present, future and synergies
Alicante, Spain
26-27 November 2019
Twenty Years of Chandra Science
Symposium
Boston, MA, USA
3-6 December 2019
X-ray Astrophysics from XMM-Newton to Athena: The heritage of XMM and opportunities of Athena
Specialist Discussion Meeting
Royal Astronomical Society, London, UK
13 December 2019
Special Session: Celebrating 20 Years of XMM-Newton Discoveries
235th Meeting of the
American Astronomical Society, Honolulu, Hawaii
5 January 2020
20 years XMM-Newton: Europe's flagship X-ray observatory ready for next decade
ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany
26 March 2020
The X-ray Universe
ESLAB, ESTEC, The Netherlands
25-29 May 2020
XMM-Newton: Current scientific highlights and future prospects
European Astronomical Society
Leiden, The Netherlands
29 June - 3 July 2020
Roots of the XMM-Newton Space Observatory: A blast from the past, Johan Bleeker and Brian Taylor
Realization of the Reflection Grating Spectrometer on XMM-Newton, Jan-Willem den Herder
Recollections on X-ray Optics and satellite developments for XMM-Newton, Robert Lainé, with support from Daniel de Chambure
Recollections of XMM, David Lumb
XMM OM history (video), Keith Mason
X-ray astronomy and Eddington winds, Ken Pounds
The development and use of the pnCCDs for science and industry, Lothar Strüder
The XMM 20 year reunion – random thoughts for the panel discussion, Brian Taylor
XMM, I remember..., Gabriele Villa
You can download the digital art XMM-Newton images in high resolution and different formats from here
