XMM-Newton Stories
NASA Scientists Discover a Novel Galactic ‘Fossil’
Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have discovered X-ray activity that sheds light on the evolution of galaxies. The X-rays outline giant clouds of cold gas in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4945. The gas appears…
X-ray Satellite XMM-Newton Celebrates 20 Years in Space
Two decades ago, on Dec. 10, 1999, an Ariane 5 rocket climbed into the morning sky from Kourou, French Guiana. It carried into orbit the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton), the largest scientific spacecraft yet built by ESA (European Space Agency)…
New Study Finds ‘Winking’ Star May Be Devouring Wrecked Planets
A team of U.S. astronomers studying the star RZ Piscium has found evidence suggesting its strange, unpredictable dimming episodes may be caused by vast orbiting clouds of gas and dust, the remains of one or more destroyed planets. “Our observations…
X-rays Reveal Temperament of Possible Planet-Hosting Stars
A new X-ray study has revealed that stars like the Sun and their less massive cousins calm down surprisingly quickly after a turbulent youth. This result has positive implications for the long-term habitability of planets orbiting such stars. A team…
X-ray Echoes of a Shredded Star Provide Close-up of ‘Killer’ Black Hole
Some 3.9 billion years ago in the heart of a distant galaxy, the intense tidal pull of a monster black hole shredded a star that passed too close. When X-rays produced in this event first reached Earth on March 28,…
Out of An Hours-long Explosion, A Stand-In For The First Stars
Astronomers analyzing a long-lasting blast of high-energy light observed in 2013 report finding features strikingly similar to those expected from an explosion from the universe’s earliest stars. If this interpretation is correct, the outburst validates ideas about a recently identified…
Chandra and XMM-Newton Provide Direct Measurement of Distant Black Hole’s Spin
Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) XMM-Newton to show a supermassive black hole six billion light years from Earth is spinning extremely rapidly. This first direct measurement of the spin of such a…
Astronomers Uncover a ‘Transformer’ Pulsar
An international team of scientists using a fleet of orbiting X-ray telescopes, including NASA’s Swift and Chandra X-ray Observatory, has discovered a millisecond pulsar with a dual identity. In a feat that has never before been observed, the star readily…
Astronomers Catch Jet from Binge-Eating Black Hole
Back in January, a new X-ray source flared and rapidly brightened in the Andromeda galaxy (M31), located 2.5 million light-years away. Classified as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), the object is only the second ever seen in M31 and became…
‘Cry’ of a Shredded Star Heralds a New Era for Testing Relativity
Last year, astronomers discovered a quiescent black hole in a distant galaxy that erupted after shredding and consuming a passing star. Now researchers have identified a distinctive X-ray signal observed in the days following the outburst that comes from matter…