XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-Newton-NEWS  #72,    20-Dec-2007

XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre at
ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre,
P.O. Box - Apdo. 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

SOC Home Page: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/
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/newsletter

Contents:


XMM-Newton AO-7 OTAC Results

The list of proposals accepted by the AO-7 Observing Time Allocation Committee (OTAC) is available with their associated abstracts at:

   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_news/ao7_results/

The Principal Investigators of submitted proposals have been informed about the results of the OTAC evaluation by e-mail. The e-mail contains the details about the second phase proposal submission for successful observations, which will be done via the XMM-Newton Remote Proposal Submission System (XRPS). The XRPS will be closed on the 8th of February 2008 at 13:00 UT.

AO-7 observations will start to be routinely performed in May 2008.

Patch to SAS 7.1.0

A general patch to SAS 7.1.0 has been released on November 28, 2007. The main motivation for it came from a change in the "rgsframes" task to cope with anomalous cases of duplicated events, in single readout node sub-mode. SAS 7.1.0 was already able to recognize and process correctly RGS data taken in single readout node sub-mode, used to operate RGS2 since 17/08/2007 (see XMM-Newsletter #67). The changes applied to "rgsframes", included in SAS 7.1.0, worked well except for an anomalous case of duplicated events, present in the RGS raw data with low but finite probability. "rgsframes" needed to be updated for coping with this case also for single readout node data.

The SAS team has taken the opportunity of having to patch SAS 7.1.0 to include some other changes. They are all described in the SAS web pages at:

   http://xmm.esac.esa.int/sas/

ESA Research Fellowships in Space Science

The European Space Agency awards several postdoctoral fellowships each year. The aim of these fellowships is to provide young scientists, holding a PhD or the equivalent degree, with the means of performing space science research in fields related to the ESA Science Programme. Areas of research include planetary science, astronomy and astrophysics, solar and solar-terrestrial science, plasma physics and fundamental physics. The fellowships are tenable at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands, or at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid, Spain.

Astronomy and Astrophysics research opportunities with XMM-Newton science staff at ESAC include: Research on high energy emission of (massive) stars, X-ray binaries, galaxies, AGNs and high resolution X-ray spectroscopy using XMM-Newton data [contact Norbert Schartel () for details].

Applications are now solicited for fellowships in space science to begin in the summer or fall of 2008. Preference will be given to applications submitted by candidates within five years of receiving their PhD. Candidates not holding a PhD yet are encouraged to apply, but they must provide evidence of receiving their degree before starting the fellowship.

The deadline for applications is 21 January 2008.

More information on the ESA Research Fellowship programme in Space Science, on the conditions and eligibility, as well as the application form can be found on the world-wide web at this address:

   http://www.rssd.esa.int/fellowship

Workshop Announcement

The Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) are pleased to announce the workshop:

   "An XXL extragalactic survey: prospects for the XMM next decade"

to be held April 14-16th, 2008 in Paris.

A three-day workshop is being organised to bring together astronomers interested in a large-scale (100 deg2 scale) extragalactic survey with XMM-Newton. The purpose of the meeting is to examine the scientific arguments for such a survey, the association with surveys at other wavelengths, the technical feasibility of conducting the survey with XMM-Newton, and the practical steps needed to make best use of the data that would be returned. Now is an excellent time for such a workshop, since groups have gained considerable experience in working with XMM-Newton data.

Contributions to the workshop are expected by January 15th, 2008. The contributions will then be posted on a forum to initiate open discussion until the meeting.

More information is available at:

   http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/RPub/Colloques/XXL/index.html



The XMM-Newton SOC takes the opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC