One of the most interesting discoveries of the Spitzer telescope is theexistence of a dust clouds near the supernova remnant Cas A that appear to movewith a velocity close to the speed of light. The likely explanation is thatthese dust clouds are not moving, but that a very luminous light flash isbriefly lighting up high density dust clouds. The probable origin of the lightflash is a giant flare from the central point source of Cas A, similar to flarefrom soft gamma ray repeaters. We propose to obtain X-ray images of the dustclouds to look for Fe-K fluorescence emission at 6.4virgulkeV, which would establishthat the origin of the infrared emission is indeed a bright X-ray flare. This inturn would establish that the point source is a magnetar.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2006-06-18T15:37:20Z/2006-06-19T12:42:37Z
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 Jacco Vink, 2007, 'Observing the X-ray light echo from the giant flare of Cas A.s point source', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-xytcrs6
