DOCSLIB.ORG

ASTRONOMY and ASTROPHYSICS XMM-Newton Observations of NGC

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ASTRONOMY and ASTROPHYSICS XMM-Newton Observations of NGC A&A manuscriptno. ASTRONOMY I(willbeinsertedbyhandlater___)) AND IYour thesaurus codes are: ASTROPHYSICS /3; (09.10.1; 11.09.1 NGC 253; 11.19.2; 11.19.3; 13.25.2) September 30, 2000 XMM-Newton observations of NGC 253: Resolving the emission components in the disk and nuclear area* W. Pietsch l, K.N. Borozdin 2, G. Branduardi-Raymont 3, M. Cappi 4, M. Ehle s, P. Ferrando 6, M.J. Freyberg 1, S.M. Kahn 7, T.J. Ponman s, A. Ptak 9, A.M. Read 1, T.P. Roberts 1°, M. Sako 7, R.E. Shirey 11, and M. Ward l° i Max Planck Institut f/ir extraterrestrische Physik, GiessenbachstraBe, D-85741 Garching bei Miinchen, Germany NIS-2, Space and Remote Sensing Sciences, MS D436 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA 3 Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK 4 Istituto TeSRE/CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy 5 XMM-Newton SOC, Villafranca, Apartado 50727, E-28080 Madrid, Spain 6 DAPNIA / Service d'Astrophysique, Bat. 709 Orme des Merisiers, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France ¢ Columbia Astrophysics Lab. and Dep. of Physics, Columbia University, 550 W. 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA s School of Physics & Astronomy, University Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 9 Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, USA t0 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK u Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA Received date; accepted date Abstract. We describe the first XMM-Newton observa- tions of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. As known from previous X-ray observations, NGC 253 shows a mixture of I. Introduction extended (disk and halo) and point-source emission. The high XMM-Newton throughput allows for the first time a X-ray emission from starburst galaxies is known to be detailed investigation of the spatial, spectral and variabil- complex, revealing both point sources and diffuse X-ray ity properties of these components simultaneously. We de- emission in abundance. X-ray binaries, supernovae, super- nova remnants and nuclear sources dominate the point-like tect a bright X-ray transient _70" SSW of the nucleus and show the spectrum and light curve of the brightest point source contribution, while the hot phases of the interstel- source (_30" S of the nucleus, most likely a black-hole lax medium (ISM), in the form of hot outflows (or winds), more bound coronal features and diffuse emission within X-ray binary, BHXRB). The unprecedented combination of RGS and EPIC also sheds new light on the emission the disk, make up the diffuse, gaseous component. of the complex nuclear region, the X-ray plume and the The nearby edge-on galaxy NGC 253 is perhaps the disk diffuse emission. In particular, EPIC images reveal classic example (along with M82) of a starburst galaxy, that the limb-brightening of the plume is mostly seen in and as such, has received a great deal of attention from X- ray observatories over the years. Initial Einstein observa- higher ionization emission lines, while in the lower ioniza- tion lines, and below 0.5keV, the plume is more homo- tions (Fabbiano & Trinchieri 1984, Fabbiano 1988), along geneously structured, pointing to new interpretations as with seeing several bright point-like disk sources, discov- to the make up of the starburst-driven outflow. Assum- ered large plumes of diffuse emission extending above and below the disk of the galaxy. Though originally thought to ing that typeIIa supernova remnants (SNRs) are mostly responsible for the E>4 keV emission, the detection with be due to 10 e K gaseous clouds, ejected from the starburst EPIC of the 6.7 keV line allows us to estimate a supernova nucleus, it was later thought that this emission could be rate within the nuclear starburst of 0.2 yr -1. due to supernovae and winds from massive stars in the central starburst driving a large-scale outflow that shock heats and accelerates ambient interstellar and circumnu- Key words: X-rays: galaxies - Galaxies: individual: NGC clear gas in the form of a galactic wind (Heckman et al. 253 - Galaxies: spiral - Galaxies: starburst - Interstellar 1990). medium: jets and outflows Several studies were made of NGC 253 with ROSAT. Both the PSPC and HRI data were presented by Read et Send offprint requests to: W. Pietsch (wnp_mpe.mpg.de) " Based on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science al. (1997) and Dahlem et al. (1998). An extensive ROSAT Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by point source catalogue of NGC 253 by Vogler & Pietsch ESA Member States and the USA (NASA). (1999), made it possible to separate the point source and W.Pietschetal.:XMM-NewtonobservationsofNGC253 diffuseX-rayemission,allowinginsightsintothespatial, Table 1. Details of NGC 253 XMM-Newton exposures. Ex- spectralandtimingpropertiesofthemanypointsourcesposure number (E), instrument setting and exposure duration withinNGC 253. The 'nuclear', likely starburst-associated and low background time (LB) axe given. source appeared to be extended, and the brightest point- like source, lying some 30" south of the nucleus, at the E Det. Filter Mode Dur. LB border of a plume of diffuse emission, was thought to be a (s) (s) plausible BHXRB candidate. Structure in the diffuse emis- 1 RGS1 SPECTR + Q 60613 47313 sion could now be studied in detail, Pietsch et al. (2000) RGS2 SPECTR + Q 60593 47293 reporting different diffuse emission components in the nu- MOS1 Medium PRI FULL 38 498 34 492 cleus, disk and halo. Especially of note was the discovery MOS2 Thin PRI FULL 38 498 34 489 of coronal diffuse emission bubbling out of the disk, via PN Medium PRI FULL 39 000 35 767 galactic fountains and chimneys (essentially formed by lo- 2 RGS1 SPECTR + Q 17402 6102 calized high-activity star-forming regions within the disk), RGS2 SPECTR + Q 17406 6106 then falling ballistically back to the plane (e.g. Norman & MOS 1 Medium PRI FULL 13 593 7190 MOS2 Thin PRI FULL 13 597 7188 Ikeuchi 1989). Also observed was a hollow-cone shaped PN Thin PRI FULL 13 999 7400 diffuse plume of emission extending up to --,700 pc along the SE minor axis, thought to be due to the interaction of the galactic superwind and the dense disk ISM. More recent high spectral resolution observations with losses. Also, times of high background were excluded to ASCA (Ptak et al. 1997) have revealed strong O, Ne, Fe, maximize sensitivity to low surface brightness emission. Mg, S and Si emission lines in the integrated NGC 253 While exposure 1 was interrupted by just a short back- spectrum, and these results have been backed up by Bep- ground flare, a major part of exposure 2 suffered from poSAX observations (Cappi et al. 1999), where for the first high background (see duration of low background (LB) time, the 6.7keV Fe K line has been detected (Persic et al. per exposure in Table 1). Source searching was performed 1998). Chandra observations allowed for the first time a on the cleaned MOS1, MOS2 and PN datasets separately. detailed study of the SE plume, tentatively observed with After comparing these source lists, the MOS datasets were ROSAT, to be a well-collimated, limb-brightened kpc- transformed to the PN positions, whereupon, merging of scale conical outflow, which closely follows in morphology the cleaned, aligned EPIC datasets took place. A final the known Ha outflow. Furthermore, several point sources transformation of the EPIC merged dataset to ROSAT are seen, the nuclear feature being partly separated into a positions was then performed. number of distinct sources (Strickland et al. 2000). For the RGS, source events from the total observa- In this letter we report the results of the performance tion were first extracted using a 1' spatial mask in the verification phase observation of NGC 253 to demonstrate cross-dispersion direction (i.e. along the minor axis cen- XMM-Newton's capabilities of spatially resolved spec- tered on the bright nuclear area), and subsequently with troscopy in a mixture of point sources and diffuse emission. a dispersion/pulse-height mask to select the first-order photons. The background spectrum was estimated using 2. Observations and data analysis the same observation from regions > 1' from the nucleus, which may contain events from the galaxy's diffuse emis- NGC 253 was observed with the European X-ray observa- sion. Data from the two RGS's are combined and divided tory XMM-Newton (Jansen et al. 2001) during orbit 89 on by the exposure and the effective area of the instrument. 2000 July 3rd and 4th for two exposures each of the Euro- pean Photon Imaging Camera instruments (EPIC, Turner 3. X-ray emission from the disk et al. 2001, Strfider et al. 2001) and the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS, den Herder et al. 2001). For details of The EPIC data clearly reveal more point sources than the instrument setups and exposure durations for the dif- the deep ROSAT observations and allow the mapping of ferent instruments see Table 1. The position angle of the diffuse emission in the disk (Fig. 1). In the following we observation (55 ° ) was close to the position angle of the concentrate on the ten brightest NGC 253 sources and galaxy (52°), and so, to minimize the effect of the EPIC present a brief analysis of the diffuse emission in the disk. PN CCD boundaries on the plume and disk emission, the nominal on-axis pointing position was offset by 65" to the 3. I. Point sources SE of the NGC 253 nucleus along the galaxy's minor axis.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ROSAT PSPC Observations of the Infrared Quasar IRAS 13349
    Mon Not R Astron So c Printed August ROSAT PSPC observations of the infrared quasar IRAS evidence for a warm absorb er with internal dust WN Brandt AC Fabian and KA Pounds Institute of Astronomy Madingley Road Cambridge CB HA Internet wnbastcamacuk acfastcamacuk Xray Astronomy Group Department of Physics Astronomy University of Leicester University Road Leicester LE RH Internet kapstarleacuk ABSTRACT We present spatial temp oral and sp ectral analyses of ROSAT Position Sensitive Pro p ortional Counter PSPC observations of the infrared loud quasar IRAS IRAS is the archetypal highlyp olarized radioquiet QSO and has an op ticalinfrared luminosity of erg s We detect variability in the ROSAT count rate by a factor of in ab out one year and there is also evidence for p er cent variability within one week We nd no evidence for large intrinsic cold absorption of soft Xrays These two facts have imp ortant consequences for the scatteringplus transmission mo del of this ob ject which was developed to explain its high wavelength dep endent p olarization and other prop erties The soft Xray variability makes electron scattering of most of the soft Xrays dicult without a very p eculiar scattering mirror The lack of signicant intrinsic cold Xray absorption together with the large observed E B V suggests either a very p eculiar system geometry or more probably absorp tion by warm ionized gas with internal dust There is evidence for an ionized oxygen edge in the Xray sp ectrum IRAS has many prop erties that are similar to those
    [Show full text]
  • Precollimator for X-Ray Telescope (Stray-Light Baffle) Mindrum Precision, Inc Kurt Ponsor Mirror Tech/SBIR Workshop Wednesday, Nov 2017
    Mindrum.com Precollimator for X-Ray Telescope (stray-light baffle) Mindrum Precision, Inc Kurt Ponsor Mirror Tech/SBIR Workshop Wednesday, Nov 2017 1 Overview Mindrum.com Precollimator •Past •Present •Future 2 Past Mindrum.com • Space X-Ray Telescopes (XRT) • Basic Structure • Effectiveness • Past Construction 3 Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • XMM-Newton 1999 • Chandra 1999 • HETE-2 2000-07 • INTEGRAL 2002 4 ESA/NASA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • Swift 2004 • Suzaku 2005-2015 • AGILE 2007 • NuSTAR 2012 5 NASA/JPL/ASI/JAXA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com • Astrosat 2015 • Hitomi (ASTRO-H) 2016-2016 • NICER (ISS) 2017 • HXMT/Insight 慧眼 2017 6 NASA/JPL/CNSA Space X-Ray Telescopes Mindrum.com NASA/JPL-Caltech Harrison, F.A. et al. (2013; ApJ, 770, 103) 7 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/770/2/103 Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com Grazing Incidence 8 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure: NuSTAR Mirrors Mindrum.com 9 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • XMM Newton XRT 10 ESA Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • XMM-Newton mirrors D. de Chambure, XMM Project (ESTEC)/ESA 11 Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • Thermal Precollimator on ROSAT 12 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/ Basic Structure XRT Mindrum.com • AGILE Precollimator 13 http://agile.asdc.asi.it Basic Structure Mindrum.com • Spektr-RG 2018 14 MPE Basic Structure: Stray X-Rays Mindrum.com 15 NASA/JPL-Caltech Basic Structure: Grazing Mindrum.com 16 NASA X-Ray Effectiveness: Straylight Mindrum.com • Correct Reflection • Secondary Only • Backside Reflection • Primary Only 17 X-Ray Effectiveness Mindrum.com • The Crab Nebula by: ROSAT (1990) Chandra 18 S.
    [Show full text]
  • NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy
    1 NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 @S0002-7537~99!00301-7# This report covers the period from July 1, 1997 to June 30, Toshiaki Takeshima, Jane Turner, Ken Watanabe, Laura 1998. Whitlock, and Tahir Yaqoob. This Laboratory’s scientific research is directed toward The following investigators are University of Maryland experimental and theoretical research in the areas of X-ray, Scientists: Drs. Keith Arnaud, Manuel Bautista, Wan Chen, gamma-ray, and cosmic-ray astrophysics. The range of inter- Fred Finkbeiner, Keith Gendreau, Una Hwang, Michael Loe- ests of the scientists includes the Sun and the solar system, wenstein, Greg Madejski, F. Scott Porter, Ian Richardson, stellar objects, binary systems, neutron stars, black holes, the Caleb Scharf, Michael Stark, and Azita Valinia. interstellar medium, normal and active galaxies, galaxy clus- Visiting scientists from other institutions: Drs. Vadim ters, cosmic-ray particles, and the extragalactic background Arefiev ~IKI!, Hilary Cane ~U. Tasmania!, Peter Gonthier radiation. Scientists and engineers in the Laboratory also ~Hope College!, Thomas Hams ~U. Seigen!, Donald Kniffen serve the scientific community, including project support ~Hampden-Sydney College!, Benzion Kozlovsky ~U. Tel such as acting as project scientists and providing technical Aviv!, Richard Kroeger ~NRL!, Hideyo Kunieda ~Nagoya assistance to various space missions. Also at any one time, U.!, Eugene Loh ~U. Utah!, Masaki Mori ~Miyagi U.!, Rob- there are typically between twelve and eighteen graduate stu- ert Nemiroff ~Mich. Tech. U.!, Hagai Netzer ~U. Tel Aviv!, dents involved in Ph.D. research work in this Laboratory. Yasushi Ogasaka ~JSPS!, Lev Titarchuk ~George Mason U.!, Currently these are graduate students from Catholic U., Stan- Alan Tylka ~NRL!, Robert Warwick ~U.
    [Show full text]
  • Nustar Observatory Guide
    NuSTAR Guest Observer Program NuSTAR Observatory Guide Version 3.2 (June 2016) NuSTAR Science Operations Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD nustar.caltech.edu heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/index.html i Revision History Revision Date Editor Comments D1,2,3 2014-08-01 NuSTAR SOC Initial draft 1.0 2014-08-15 NuSTAR GOF Release for AO-1 Addition of more information about CZT 2.0 2014-10-30 NuSTAR SOC detectors in section 3. 3.0 2015-09-24 NuSTAR SOC Update to section 4 for release of AO-2 Update for NuSTARDAS v1.6.0 release 3.1 2016-05-10 NuSTAR SOC (nusplitsc, Section 5) 3.2 2016-06-15 NuSTAR SOC Adjustment to section 9 ii Table of Contents Revision History ......................................................................................................................................................... ii 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 NuSTAR Program Organization ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. The NuSTAR observatory .................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 NuSTAR Performance ........................................................................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Exep Science Plan Appendix (SPA) (This Document)
    ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 1 of 61 Created By: David A. Breda Date Program TDEM System Engineer Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Dr. Nick Siegler Date Program Chief Technologist Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Concurred By: Dr. Gary Blackwood Date Program Manager Exoplanet Exploration Program NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology EXOPDr.LANET Douglas Hudgins E XPLORATION PROGRAMDate Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program ScienceScience Plan Mission DirectorateAppendix NASA Headquarters Karl Stapelfeldt, Program Chief Scientist Eric Mamajek, Deputy Program Chief Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program JPL CL#19-0790 JPL Document No: 1735632 ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 2 of 61 Approved by: Dr. Gary Blackwood Date Program Manager, Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Dr. Douglas Hudgins Date Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters Created by: Dr. Karl Stapelfeldt Chief Program Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Dr. Eric Mamajek Deputy Program Chief Scientist Exoplanet Exploration Program Office NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2018 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged. Exoplanet Exploration Program JPL CL#19-0790 ExEP Science Plan, Rev A JPL D: 1735632 Release Date: February 15, 2019 Page 3 of 61 Table of Contents 1.
    [Show full text]
  • ROSAT All-Sky Survey
    ROSAT All-Sky Survey S. R. Kulkarni July 22, 2020{July 27, 2020 The Russian-German mission, Spektr-R¨ongtenGamma (SRG) is on the verge of revolution- izing X-ray astronomy. One of the instruments, eROSITA, will be undertaking an imaging survey of the X-ray sky. Each six-month the entire sky will be covered to a sensitivity which is ten times better than the previous such survey (ROSAT). After eight semesters SRG will undertake pointed observations. I provide a condensed history so that a young student can appreciate the importance of SRG/eROSITA. The first all sky survey was undertaken by the Uhuru (aka SAS-1; 1970) satellite. This was followed up by HEAO-1 (aka HEAO-A; 1977) surveys. These surveys detected 339 and 843 sources in the 2{10 keV band. For those interested in arcana, 1 Uhuru count/s is 1:7 × 10−11 erg cm−2 s−1 in the 2{6 keV band. The next major mission was HEAO-2 (aka Einstein; launched in 1978). This was a game changer since, unlike the past missions which used essentially collimators or shadow cam- eras, the centerpiece of Einstein was a true imaging telescope. Furthermore the mission carried an amazing complement of imagers and spectrometers in the focal plane. The mission coincided with my graduate school (1978-1983). R¨ontgensatellit (ROSAT) was a German mission to undertake an X-ray imaging survey of the entire sky { the first such survey. Launched in 1990 it lasted for eight years. It carried two Positional Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC; 0.1{2.4 keV), a High Resolution Imager (HRI) and the Wide Field Camera (WFC; 60{300 A).˚ The PSPC, with a field-of- view of 2 degrees, was the primary work horse for the X-ray sky survey and was > 100 more sensitive than the pioneering Uhuru and HEAO-A1 surveys.
    [Show full text]
  • XMM-Newton Spectra of Hard Spectrum Rosat AGN: X-Ray Absorption and Optical Reddening
    A&A 420, 163–172 (2004) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20035683 & c ESO 2004 Astrophysics XMM-Newton spectra of hard spectrum Rosat AGN: X-ray absorption and optical reddening F. J. Carrera1,M.J.Page2, and J. P. D. Mittaz3 1 Instituto de F´ısica de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Avenida de los Castros, 39005 Santander, Spain 2 Mullard Space Science Laboratory-University College London, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK e-mail: [email protected] 3 University of Huntsville, Alabama, USA e-mail: [email protected] Received 14 November 2003 / Accepted 3 March 2004 Abstract. We present the XMM-Newton spectra of three low-redshift intermediate Seyferts (one Sy 1.5, and two Sy 1.8), from our survey of hard spectrum Rosat sources. The three AGN are well fitted by absorbed powerlaws, with intrinsic nuclear photo- electric absorption from column densities between 1.3 and 4.0 × 1021 cm−2. In the brightest object the X-ray spectrum is good enough to show that the absorber is not significantly ionized. For all three objects the powerlaw slopes appear to be somewhat flatter (Γ ∼ 1.3−1.6) than those found in typical unabsorbed Seyferts. The constraints from optical and X-ray emission lines imply that all three objects are Compton-thin. For the two fainter objects, the reddening deduced from the optical broad emis- sion lines in one of them, and the optical continuum in the other, are similar to those expected from the X-ray absorption, if we assume a Galactic gas-to-dust ratio and reddening curve.
    [Show full text]
  • 19 93MNRAS.2 60. .631B Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 260, 631
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 260, 631-634 (1993) .631B 60. ROSAT EUV and soft X-ray studies of atmospheric composition and structure in Gl 91-B2B 93MNRAS.2 19 M. A. Barstow,1 T. A. Fleming,2 D.S. Finley,3 D. Koester4 and C. J. Diamond5 1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LEI 7RH 2 Max-Planck-Institutßr Extraterrestriche Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, Garching bei München, Germany 3 Center for EUV Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA 4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge 70803-4001, Louisiana, USA 5 School of Physics and Space Research, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham BI5 2TT Accepted 1992 July 28. Received 1992 July 15 ABSTRACT Previous studies of the hot DA white dwarf G191-B2B have been unable to deter- mine whether the observed soft X-ray and EUV opacity arises from a stratified hydrogen and helium atmosphere or from the presence of trace metals in the photo- sphere. New EUV and soft X-ray photometry of this star, made with the ROSAT observatory, when analysed in conjunction with the earlier data, shows that the strati- fied models cannot account for the observed fluxes. Consequently, we conclude that trace metals must be a substantial source of opacity in the photosphere of G191-B2B. Key words: stars: abundances - stars: individual: G191-B2B - white dwarfs - X-rays: stars. 1 INTRODUCTION optical and ultraviolet (UV ) spectra. Furthermore, Vennes et al. (1988) have ruled out homogeneous models on theore- G191-B2B has been one the most widely studied of the tical grounds.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology of NASA Expendable Vehicle Missions Since 1990
    Chronology of NASA Expendable Vehicle Missions Since 1990 Launch Launch Date Payload Vehicle Site1 June 1, 1990 ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) Delta II ETR, 5:48 p.m. EDT An X-ray observatory developed through a cooperative program between Germany, the U.S., and (Delta 195) LC 17A the United Kingdom. Originally proposed by the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) and designed, built and operated in Germany. Launched into Earth orbit on a U.S. Air Force vehicle. Mission ended after almost nine years, on Feb. 12, 1999. July 25, 1990 CRRES (Combined Radiation and Release Effects Satellite) Atlas I ETR, 3:21 p.m. EDT NASA payload. Launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit for a nominal three-year mission to (AC-69) LC 36B investigate fields, plasmas, and energetic particles inside the Earth's magnetosphere. Due to onboard battery failure, contact with the spacecraft was lost on Oct. 12, 1991. May 14, 1991 NOAA-D (TIROS) (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-D) Atlas-E WTR, 11:52 a.m. EDT A Television Infrared Observing System (TIROS) satellite. NASA-developed payload; USAF (Atlas 50-E) SLC 4 vehicle. Launched into sun-synchronous polar orbit to allow the satellite to view the Earth's entire surface and cloud cover every 12 hours. Redesignated NOAA-12 once in orbit. June 29, 1991 REX (Radiation Experiment) Scout 216 WTR, 10:00 a.m. EDT USAF payload; NASA vehicle. Launched into 450 nm polar orbit. Designed to study scintillation SLC 5 effects of the Earth's atmosphere on RF transmissions. 114th launch of Scout vehicle.
    [Show full text]
  • Ii. Future Missions (A) X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Missions
    II. FUTURE MISSIONS (A) X-RAY AND GAMMA-RAY MISSIONS Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 27 Sep 2021 at 05:30:15, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0252921100076909 RONTGEN SATELLITE J. TRUMPER MPI fur Extraterrestrische Physik, D-8O46 Garching-bei-Miinchen The ROSAT launch on June 1, 1990 happened to be after the IAU Colloquium No. 123 before the deadline for submitting manuscripts. I therefore take the liberty to deviate grossly from the manuscript of my talk and give a short up to date mission summary. A more complete description of the mission can be found in References 1 and 2. The launch of the Delta II rocket was perfect and the orbital parameters reached are very close to nominal: height 580 km, inclination 53°. The predicted satellite's lifetime in this orbital is at least 10 years. The switch-on of the spacecraft and instrument subsystems could be completed without any losses. All systems are in good health. ROSAT carries two instruments: — a large Wolter telescope covering the energy range 0.1-2.4 keV with two position sensitive proportional counters (PSPC) and one high resolution imager (HRI) and — Wolter-Schwarzschild-telescope with two channel plate detectors covering the adjacent XUV-range. The novel features of the X-ray telescope are: — large collecting power — good spectral resolution of the PSPC's: AE/E ~ 0.4 at 1 keV; four colours — low background of the PSPC's: 3 x 10-5 cts/arcmin2 sec — high angular resolution with the HRI: < 4 arcsec half power width (PSPC ~ 25 arcsec) The ROSAT mission comprises three phases: After the initial calibration and verification phase an all sky survey is carried out during half a year, followed by a period of pointed observations.
    [Show full text]
  • RICCARDO GIACCONI Associated Universities, Inc., Suite 730, 1400 16Th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA, and Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N
    THE DAWN OF X-RAY ASTRONOMY Nobel Lecture, December 8, 2002 by RICCARDO GIACCONI Associated Universities, Inc., Suite 730, 1400 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA, and Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, USA. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The development of rockets and satellites capable of carrying instruments outside the absorbing layers of the Earth’s atmosphere has made possible the observation of celestial objects in the x-ray range of wavelength. X-rays of energy greater than several hundreds of electron volts can pene- trate the interstellar gas over distances comparable to the size of our own galaxy, with greater or lesser absorption depending on the direction of the line of sight. At energies of a few kilovolts, x-rays can penetrate the entire col- umn of galactic gas and in fact can reach us from distances comparable to the radius of the universe. The possibility of studying celestial objects in x-rays has had a profound sig- nificance for all astronomy. Over the x-ray to gamma-ray range of energies, x- rays are, by number of photons, the most abundant flux of radiation that can reveal to us the existence of high energy events in the cosmos. By high ener- gy events I mean events in which the total energy expended is extremely high (supernova explosions, emissions by active galactic nuclei, etc.) or in which the energy acquired per nucleon or the temperature of the matter involved is extremely high (infall onto collapsed objects, high temperature plasmas, in- teraction of relativistic electrons with magnetic or photon fields).
    [Show full text]
  • An INTEGRAL Hard X-Ray Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud
    A&A 448, 873–880 (2006) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20053744 & c ESO 2006 Astrophysics An INTEGRAL hard X-ray survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud D. Götz1,S.Mereghetti1, D. Merlini1,2, L. Sidoli1, and T. Belloni3 1 INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy e-mail: [email protected] 2 Dipartimento di Fisica - Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy 3 INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy Received 1 July 2005 / Accepted 27 October 2005 ABSTRACT Two observation campaigns in 2003 and 2004 with the INTEGRAL satellite have provided the first sensitive survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud with an imaging instrument in the hard X-ray range (15 keV–10 MeV). The high energy flux and long-term variability of the black hole candidate LMC X–1 was measured for the first time without contamination by the nearby (∼25) young pulsar PSR B0540–69. We studied the accreting pulsar LMC X–4 by constraining the size of the hard X-ray emitting region (≤3 × 1010 cm) from analysis of its eclipses and by measuring its spin period (13.497 ± 0.005 s) in the 20–40 keV band. As it was in a soft state during the first observation and possibly in an extremely low state in the second one, LMC X–3 was not detected. Thanks to the large field of view of the IBIS instrument, we could also study other sources falling serendipitously in the observed sky region around the LMC: the Galactic low mass X-ray binary EXO 0748–676, the accreting pulsar SMC X–1 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and the Active Galactic Nucleus IRAS 04575–7537.
    [Show full text]