The X-ray emitting gas in the Galactic halo has important consequences for thefunctioning of the Galaxy, yet is poorly understood. To address this problem,we propose a shadowing experiment for the Galactic halo. This will be thefirst time that the halo will be observed with a high throughput, high spectralresolution instrument covering the entire 0.1 to 0.8 keV range, the range whichis necessary for observing important bright emission lines and complexesproduced by the roughly one million degree gas in the halo. The XMM spectrawill reveal the ionization levels of several important species, allowing us todetermine the ionization history of the gas and to tightly constrain models forthe x-ray emitting gas in the Galactic halo.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2002-05-03T06:16:05Z/2002-05-03T22:11:55Z
Version
17.56_20190403_1200
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr Robin Shelton, 2003, 'Characterizing the X-Ray Spectrum of the Galactic Halo', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-zbyvf1z
