Our detection of a filament of virgul0.9 keV gas connecting the clusters of galaxiesAbell 222 and 223 offered one of the first successful glimpses at a smallfraction of the missing baryons in the local Universe. To understand the natureand properties of the Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), it is of utmostimportance to extend our search to other promising systems. We propose deep (150ks each) observations of two pairs of clusters of galaxies in which the filamentconnecting them is expected to lie approximately along our line-of-sight. Thisfavorable geometry will allow us to detect the WHIM down to an average densityof 2-3x10^-5 cm^-3, which is only a factor of two to three larger than thedensities that we hope to detect with proposed dedicated future missions.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2010-10-27T04:50:42Z/2011-04-07T21:49:26Z
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 Norbert Werner, 2012, 'Quest for X-ray emission from the large-scale structure between cluster pairs', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-n7kotws
