XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-NEWTON NEWS #19,    21-Dec-2001

ESA, XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC)
P.O. Box - Apdo. 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page: http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
Helpdesk web interface: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk
Helpdesk email address: xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/newsletterindex.shtml

Contents:

Dear Colleagues,

XMM-Newton's birthday and mission extension

On December 10th at 14:32 GMT it was exactly two years ago that the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory was, flawlessly, placed into its orbit.

In the past two years XMM-Newton operations have matured to where we are today, an observatory routinely and timely delivering extremely high quality data, as was demonstrated by the many excellent papers presented at the "New Visions of the Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra era" symposium held at ESTEC from 26-30 November, 2001.

Early in December, the extension of the XMM-Newton mission for another 4 years was approved; providing us with a clear, scientifically highly interesting, future. This extension was given under the explicit remark, that every attempt should be made to accelerate the completion of the Guaranteed Time (GT) programme. It is therefore foreseen to increase the scheduling of GT targets during the first half of 2002 and the beginning of the AO-2 phase. This approach will improve the current situation that many outstanding GT observations are effectively blocking further observations of scientifically important targets.

We would like to take this opportunity and thank all of those who have continuously supported this wonderful mission.

Target of Opportunity (ToO): GRB011211

Triggered by a BeppoSAX WFC1 Gamma Ray Burst alert, XMM-Newton performed a slew towards this X-ray rich GRB011211 in revolution 368, only about 4 hours after the alert reached the on call SOC scientist.

>From the corresponding GCN GRB Observation Report 1192 (Santos-Lleo et al.):

QLA (Quick-Look-Analysis) analysis of the XMM-Newton observation of GRB011211 (G. Gandolfi et al. GCN 1188 and 1189) shows the presence of a source in the WFC error box:

S1 (J2000): R.A. = 11h 15m 17.9s Decl. = -21 56' 57.5"
with an estimated EPIC/pn countrate of 0.02 [counts/sec].

At this stage of reduction the error is expected to be less than 10". Refined coordinates will be distributed as soon as the final attitude reconstruction is obtained.

The ToO observation data files have been made public at
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/news/GRB011211/grb011211.html

Public data

SOC is constantly increasing the number of public data sets from the XMM-Newton Performance Verification and Calibration phase. An updated list of the currently available 152 data sets is accessible from:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/user/mplan/XMM-Newton/public_list.html

Tell us about your XMM-Newton publications and PR activities

We encourage once again the community to inform the XMM-Newton Helpdesk (email: xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int) about all the papers publishing XMM-Newton data. This will allow us to link the observations in the XMM-Newton Science Archive with the related publications.

Please, be reminded that all publications which make use of XMM-Newton data must include the following acknowledgment:

"This work is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA)."

In addition, the Project Scientist would appreciate to be informed via email (fjansen@rssd.esa.int) about all planned press releases and other public relation activities which are related to XMM-Newton.

Helpdesk closed over Christmas

Please, be informed that due to public holidays in Spain the helpdesk will not be supported from Dec-22 to Jan-02. We will follow up all your questions again after the break.

Plans for 2002

Amongst the projects that the SOC plans to address in 2002 we like to highlight the following items:
We will keep you informed about progress on these and other projects via XMM-Newton News.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and all our very best wishes for 2002.


Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC