XMM-Newton-NEWS


XMM-Newton-NEWS  #79,    18-Jul-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:


XMM-Newton Users Handbook update for AO-8

The XMM-Newton Users Handbook (UHB) has been updated to version 2.6 in preparation for the next Announcement of Opportunity (AO-8) and reflecting latest in-flight experience.

The AO-8 will open on the 26th of August 2008 with a due date for proposals on the 10th of October 2008 (12:00 UT) (for further details, see XMM-NEWTON NEWS #73).

The UHB contains information on the instrumentation on board XMM-Newton and serves as the main technical support document for proposal preparation, based on which potential XMM-Newton users can assess the technical feasibility of their planned observations.

The XMM-Newton Users Handbook is available on-line at

xmm-tools.cosmos.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/documentation/uhb/

Alternatively, postscript and PDF versions of the UHB can be downloaded from the "XMM-Newton Proposer's Info and Manuals" portal at

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


XMM-Newton Conference "The X-ray Universe 2008":
Presentations and Posters available on-line

Presentations, posters and conference photos of the XMM-Newton Conference "The X-ray Universe 2008", that took place in Granada from the 27th to the 30th of May 2008, are available on-line at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/2008-symposium/

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 astronomy and astrophysics, planetary science, solar and solar-terrestrial science, plasma physics and fundamental physics. The fellowships are tenable at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid, Spain, or at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

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].

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 the 2009 call for applications is 1 October 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 internet at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/science-faculty/research-fellowship

Update of EPIC-pn Charge Transfer Inefficiency Calibration File

In the EPIC-pn Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) Current Calibration File (CCF) version #17 (publicly released on April 1, 2008) one of the parameters was accidentally modified to a wrong value. The modification affects observations in the following pn modes: Small and Large Window, Timing and Burst. Calibration Index Files (CIF) generated with the analysisdate between April 1 and July 9 2008 pick up this incorrect calibration file. This change may introduce shifts in the determination of, e.g., the Fe K-alpha fluorescent line centroid energy up to ~60 eV. More information can be found in the CCF release note available at:

http://xmm2.esac.esa.int/docshttps://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/CAL-SRN-0246-1-0.ps.gz

Data analysis of pn exposures in one of the aforementioned modes performed with issues #17 and #18 of this CCF is potentially affected by this problem. Users are recommended to reduce the data again (from the epproc or epchain stage onwards) with Issue#19, currently available in the public CCF data repository.

If you are unsure on which issue of the EPIC-pn CTI CCF your data were reduced, you can check it by looking at the value of the ISSUE column of your CIF, corresponding to the row: SCOPE='EPN' and TYPEID='CTI'.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused to you.

2XMM Catalogue Paper submitted to A&A

A paper describing the creation and characteristics of the 2XMM catalogue has been submitted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The paper has also been posted on the astro-ph preprint server, with reference:   Watson et al. arXiv:0807.1067

As announced in the XMM-Newton Newsletter #68, the 2XMM catalogue and related products are available from the XSA:

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

and also with full documentation via the XMM-Newton SSC website:

http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/Catalogue/2XMM/

8th ESAC SAS Workshop: Presentations available

Presentations given at the 8th Science Analysis System (SAS) Workshop, which was held at ESAC from the 24th to the 27th of June 2008 are now available on-line at:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/sas-workshop-2008-presentations


Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC