XMM-Newton 'spare-time' provides impressive sky survey

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In its on-going slew survey of the sky XMM-Newton is able to map with high efficiency very large sky features. Among these is the 20 000 year-old Vela supernova remnant (right) - occupying a sky area 150 times larger than the full moon. This object i ...
In its on-going slew survey of the sky, XMM-Newton is able to map with high efficiency very large sky features. Among these, is the 20 000 year-old Vela supernova remnant (right) - occupying a sky area 150 times larger than the full moon. This object is compared here with an image previously taken by the former ROSAT mission (left). Credits: ESA/ROSAT

For the past four years, while ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has been slewing between different targets ready for the next observation, it has kept its cameras open and used this spare time to quietly look at the heavens. The result is a 'free-of-charge' mission spin-off – a survey that has now covered an impressive 25 percent of the sky.


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