XMM-Newton-NEWS

Contents:

• Release of the new version the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue: 3XMM (DR6)
• XSA v9.1 release with access to the 3XMM (DR6) catalogue
• Release of ESASky v1.0
• FLIX upper-limit server updated
• ESA Research Fellowship in Space Science at ESAC

Release of the new version the XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue 3XMM (DR6)

A new version of the XMM-Newton EPIC Serendipitous Source Catalogue, 3XMM-DR6, has been released. The catalogue includes more than two years of additional data with respect to 3XMM-DR5, with 678680 detections which relate to 468440 unique sources from 9160 observations that were public by the 31^st January 2016. 3XMM-DR6 covers a total sky area, with at least 1 ks exposure, of ~982 square degrees if overlaps are taken into account, where some regions of the sky have been pointed as many as 50 times. This represents an increase of approximately 18% in terms of unique sources compared with 3XMM-DR5, that was released in April 2015. Around 10% of the detections are classified as extended, and spectra and time series have been extracted for around 22% of the sources. The positional uncertainty of the catalogue detections is generally less than 3 arcseconds (90% confidence) and the astrometric quality of 3XMM is improved with respect to prior releases. Typical sensitivities in the catalogue are ~6E-15 and ~1.5E-14 erg/cm²/s in the soft (0.2-2 keV) and hard (2-12 keV) X-ray band, respectively.

The creation of the 3XMM catalogue is a joint venture carried out by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre Consortium. The catalogue is described in the paper Rosen, Webb, Watson et al. 2016, A&A, 590, 1. Details of the catalogue, the catalogue files and full 3XMM documentation are available at

     http://xmmssc.irap.omp.eu/Catalogue/3XMM-DR6/3XMM_DR6.html

FITS files containing summary information about the observations used in the catalogue are also provided. FITS and CSV versions of the full 3XMM catalogue and a slimline version of the FITS file are also available for download at

     http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xsa

The slimline version has only one row per unique source (rather than per detection as in the main catalogue) and a reduced number of columns that essentially pertain to the unique source quantities.

Alongside the XSA user interface, 3XMM is also distributed through:
 

XSA v9.1 release with access to the 3XMM (DR6) Catalogue

A new version of the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA v9.1) is available at

     http://archives.esac.esa.int/xmm-newton

It includes access to the incremental version of the EPIC (3XMM-DR6) catalogue and, among other improvements, a new visualisation of the results for a search on a list of objects.

Details can be found at

     http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/xsa#notes

Release of ESASky v1.0

The first version of ESASky has been released and can be accessed at

     http://sky.esa.int

This new web service provides multi-wavelength visualization and access to the public data of ESA astronomy missions, and some non-ESA missions that are being incorporated regularly. It uses Aladin Lite, which has been developed at the Centre de Donnees Astronomiques de Strasbourg in France.

Progressive XMM-Newton EPIC and OM images have been integrated into ESASky by projecting the footprints of the exposures onto the sky. They can be visualized together with similar high-level data products of other missions. EPIC and OM catalogue sources, as well as sources from catalogues in other wavelengths, can be overlaid on the sky images.

Direct links from the ESASky images and catalogues to the XMM-Newton Science Archive (XSA) allow to get specific information or to download the selected data.

FLIX upper-limit server updated

The FLIX upper-limit server, a service hosted by LEDAS, has recently been updated to include all observations used in DR5 of the 3XMM serendipitous source catalogue. This tool is available at

     http://www.ledas.ac.uk/flix/flix_dr5.html

ESA Research Fellowship 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. The fellowships have a duration of two years.

Applications are now solicited for fellowships in space science to begin in the fall of 2017. 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 novae, galaxies, and AGN 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 ( Norbert.Schartel@sciops.esa.int ) for more details on ESA Research Fellowships related to XMM-Newton.

The deadline for applications is

More information on the ESA Research Fellowship programme in Space Science, on the conditions and eligibility, as well as the application form can be retrieved from

     http://cosmos.esa.int/fellowship

 

Yours sincerely,
XMM-Newton SOC