XMM-Newton-NEWS

XMM-Newton-NEWS  #94,    10-Jul-2009

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:	http://xmm.esac.esa.int/
Helpdesk web interface:	http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/helpdesk.shtml
Helpdesk email address:	xmmhelp@sciops.esa.int
News Mailing List:	http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_news/news_list/index.php

Contents:

• XSA (v6.0) release with access to the incremental Slew Survey catalogue
• Upper Limit tool for the Slew Survey observations
• XMM-Newton Slew Survey and Comparison with Rosat All Sky Survey
• ESA Research Fellowships in Space Science at ESAC
• 9th ESAC SAS Workshop: Presentations available
• Conference "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery": deadline for abstract submission

---

XSA (v6.0) release with access to the incremental Slew Survey catalogue

A new version of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSAv6.0) is now available at http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa/. XSAv6.0 includes improvements in the geometry and search algorithms and the implementation of a Java Web Start launcher of the XSA interface for better memory handling. In addition it provides access to the incremental (Delta-3) Slew Survey Source Catalogue.

Incremental Slew Survey catalogue (Delta-3)

An update to the XMM-Newton Slew Catalogue (Delta-3) is now available. It can be accessed and searched with XSAv6.0 or downloaded as a FITS table from the XSA web page above.

The update contains data from 110 slew observations between revolutions 1484 and 1667. It covers 3800 deg2 and contains 3781 new detections and 1554 new sources in the clean catalogue. The total sky coverage of the slew catalogue is now around 40%.

Documentation about the catalogue is available at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_products/slew_survey/xmmsl1d_ug.shtml

Upper Limit tool for the Slew Survey observations

A web-based upper limit server for the Slew Survey data has been developed at the XMM-Newton SOC and will be released soon. The release will be announced in an XMM-Newton Newsletter.

The Upper Limit Server (ULS) is designed to first check whether a slew path crossed a given position with EPIC-pn exposures being taken. If so the ULS returns the maximum count rate and flux at the queried position, for each slew covering that position.

The ULS tool, as well as its Users Guide will be soon available at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/xsa/

XMM-Newton Slew Survey and Comparison with Rosat All Sky Survey

The XMM-Newton SOC has released a community resource web site with the following objectives:

• to detect and discover high variable X-ray sources, and
• to make the results from slew data analysis available on the XMM-Newton web pages as quickly as possible

The latest accumulated slew data are automatically analysed and the results are presented. The source fluxes are compared with fluxes measured during the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) to detect variability.

The web page including a more detailed description of the performed analysis is available at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_products/slew_results/web_slew.shtml

ESA Research Fellowships in Space Science at ESAC

Postdoctoral fellowships in the area of Astronomy and Astrophysics related to the X-ray observatory XMM-Newton are tenable at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre in the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) located in Villafranca del Castillo, near Madrid, Spain.

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.

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.

Research opportunities with XMM-Newton science staff include: studies of the high energy emission of (massive) stars, X-ray binaries, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, AGN and high resolution X-ray spectroscopy using XMM-Newton data. Working at ESAC within the XMM-Newton team gives the unique opportunity of being in contact with the calibration scientists, the developers of the analysis software and the User Support Group.

Please contact Norbert Schartel ( ) for more details on ESA Research Fellowships related to XMM-Newton.

The deadline for the 2010 call for applications is 1 October 2009.

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:

http://www.rssd.esa.int/fellowship

9th ESAC SAS Workshop: Presentations available

Presentations given at the 9th Science Analysis System (SAS) Workshop, which was held at ESAC from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July 2009 are now available on-line at:

http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_data_analysis/sas_workshops/sas_ws9_files/index.shtml

Conference "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery":
deadline for abstract submission

As announced in issue #91 of the XMM-Newton Newsletter, the conference "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery" will be held on September 22-25, 2009 at the Seaport Hotel, Boston, US.

The deadline for submitting abstracts to be considered for an oral presentation is today, 10th of July. Please submit your abstract on-line at

http://cxc.harvard.edu/symposium_2009/abstracts.html

The deadline for abstracts for poster presentations is August 21, 2009.

More information is available at the conference website at:

http://cxc.harvard.edu/symposium_2009/index.html


Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC