XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-Newton-NEWS  #77,    26-Jun-2008

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:


XSA Release (v.4.5) with access to the updated Slew Survey Catalogue

Since the 29th of May version 4.5 of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) is available at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xsa

It includes several improvements in the user interface and Archive InterOperability System (AIO) data access.

In addition, an update to the XMM-Newton Slew Catalogue (XMMSL1) was released on April 25, which can be accessed with XSAv4.5 and can also be downloaded as a FITS table from the XSA web page above. This update (called "Delta-2") contains data from 563 slew observations between revolutions 314 and 1481. A "full" catalogue, containing 16000 detections and a "clean" catalogue containing 7700 sources have been produced, covering 30% of the sky. In the hard X-ray band (2-12 keV) 800 sources are detected in the clean catalogue. The source positions are shown to have an uncertainty of 8" (1 sigma confidence).

Documentation about the catalogue is available at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/slew-survey-catalogue

XMM-Newton AO7 long-term plan

The scheduling of the seventh cycle of XMM-Newton observations, AO7, started in May 2008 and is expected to finish by the end of April 2009. On May 14, the long-term scheduling plan for the AO7 period was released at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/long-term-plan

Principal Investigators of pending XMM-Newton observations are encouraged to check this plan, especially if scheduling constraints were granted following the Time Allocation Committee recommendations. All observers should be aware that, as flexibility is required in the scheduling process, the long term plan only fills about 50% of the available observing time, using some 50% of the approved observations. Consequently about 50% of the approved observations do not appear in the long term plan. The final observing plan is only available some two to four weeks in advance of the start of an XMM-Newton revolution. It is intended to follow the long term plan as closely as possible. The XMM-Newton SOC nevertheless reserves the right to modify the plan at any stage of the scheduling process, should this become necessary.


XMM-Newton Users Group meeting #9: presentations available

The XMM-Newton Users Group met on the 6th and 7th of May 2008 at ESAC. Please find the presentations of this meeting at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/users-group

Minutes of the meeting will be published on the same page and announced via another XMM-Newton Newsletter.

Call for XMM-Newton results with potential for ESA press releases

The XMM-Newton team is looking forward to hearing from you about exciting new results obtained with XMM-Newton observations.

The XMM-Newton team does not have dedicated resources to systematically monitor astro-ph and the published literature for interesting new material. However, ESA does have a team of public affairs officers who will help arranging appropriate publicity and Press Releases. Please remember that they can only start the work once they know that a result is available.

Your exciting results with XMM-Newton do represent an important support for the mission. Remember that the public strongly supports astronomy because they enjoy seeing the fruit of our work!

Please contact us through the helpdesk at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xmm-newton-helpdesk

Workshop announcement: Exploring the Hot Universe with XEUS

The following science meeting:

"Exploring the Hot Universe with XEUS"

will be held on September 17-19 2008 at the MPE, Garching, Germany.

XEUS, the next generation X-ray observatory, has been selected as a candidate Large-class mission as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Active study of the XEUS concept by ESA and JAXA is now underway in preparation for the Cosmic Vision downselection, expected at the end of 2009. The purpose of this workshop is to gather together members of the astronomical community with an interest in XEUS, to discuss the science we expect to be enabled by the mission. As well as summarising the current status of the project, topics to be covered include:

In addition a major component of the workshop will be devoted to identifying new science goals and drivers.

More information is available at:

http://www.mpe.mpg.de/xeus/workshop_mpe_2008.html

Deadline for registration and abstract submission is July 30th 2008.

Call for participation on a European FP7 proposal

A call for participation on a European Framework Programme 7 (FP7) proposal on Integrated Activities for the High-Energy Astrophysics Domain (AHEAD) has been issued this week by a steering committee (see below). Following the request of this committee, the call is announced here as well, together with the reference for further details, like in particular the committee composition and the contact address.

Call for participation:

There is an emergent need to coordinate efforts in high-energy astrophysics at the European level. In January 2008, an adhoc Steering Committee, composed of several members of the high-energy astrophysics community, was formed to discuss the opportunity for a European FP7 proposal entitled Integrated Activities for the High-Energy Astrophysics Domain (AHEAD).

This proposal will be submitted as a response to the Spring 2010 call for bottom-up integrated activities, in the frame of the FP7 Capacities Work Programme for support to existing research infrastructures. To ensure that the needs of the high-energy astrophysics community are adequately represented, the Steering Committee invites the community to respond massively to the present Call and to participate in the preparation and the definition of the proposal.

The deadline for this proposal submission is 31th of August 2008.

More details on the call can be found on the AHEAD website at:

http://isdc.unige.ch/ahead



Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC