XMM-Newton Summary

The European Space Agency's (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESA's second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations.

Since Earth's atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.

The XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre (SOC), located at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villafranca near Madrid, Spain, is responsible for the science operations of ESA's XMM-Newton scientific satellite. Starting with the reception of the observer's scientific proposals to the final delivery of calibrated scientific products to the observer the activities of the SOC comprise all the necessary steps to ensure high quality and reliability of the scientific data. It also includes the provision of a major scientific analysis software package, the Scientific Analysis System (SAS), needed by the observers for optimum scientific exploitation of the XMM-Newton data and the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA).