The variety of sources in the X-ray sky
Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of X. Barcons, Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria, Spain, SSC, AXIS and ESA. (for details, see Conditions of Use).
Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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| About this Image |
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XMM-Newton is an extremely powerful instrument in detecting untargeted cosmic sources. The image shows an EPIC-pn calibration observation of the active galaxy Markarian 205 (optical image on the top). While observing this X-ray source for about 5 hours, XMM-Newton discovered 60 more X-ray sources in its large (1/2 of a degree in diameter) field of view. Most of these new X-ray sources lacked an identity at the time of their discovery. The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (SSC; PI: M. Watson, UK), as part of its activities, identified a large number of these new sources within the AXIS programme. The figure shows optical “postage stamp” images of the surroundings of a few of these X-ray sources and the optical spectrum of what turned out to be their optical counterparts. Among the identities found for the new sources, there are apparently “normal” nearby galaxies (#2), fairly close (#5) and distant (#16) Quasi-Stellar Objects (powered by supermassive black holes), unobscured Seyfert 1 (#6 just like the target Mkn 205) and obscured Seyfert 2 (#3) galaxies (also powered by less active black holes) as well as a star with an extremely active corona (#19). All this zoo of various classes of X-ray emitters is being explored by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre, whose identifications will continue to be made public to all astronomers as work progresses. The XMM-Newton SSC: http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk; The AXIS programme: http://www.ifca.unican.es/~xray/AXIS
Investigator(s): X. Barcons (SSC, AXIS)
| For More Information |
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- Visit related website;
http://www.ifca.unican.es/~xray/AXIS - Detailed description of this image
- Query XSA archive for XMM-Newton data in the field of MRK 205
- Astronomical database entries for MRK 205;
- Query NED for more images about MRK 205
- Query SIMBAD for more MRK 205 data
- For unfamiliar terms, visit the XMM-Newton Astronomical Glossary
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