The Fermi Large Area Telescope has been very successful at discovering gamma-raypulsars in blind searches. As we extend the search to dimmer pulsars, theincreasing source location uncertainty makes discovery more challenging. Wepropose to observe a selected set of 8 LAT-detected high Galactic latitudegamma-ray sources that have pulsar-like gamma-ray spectra but no as-yetidentified counterparts in any other waveband. These sources have been detectedby the LAT with high significance and are likely nearby gamma-ray pulsars. Theproposed observations are for 10 ks per source, covering the Fermi LAT sourceerror region in a single pointing. We will determine the X-ray position, flux,and spectral properties in the 0.2-10 keV energy band for any sources detected by XMM-Newton within this region.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2010-06-23T21:23:15Z/2010-10-04T04:10:57Z
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 Eric Grove, 2011, 'Search for X-ray Counterparts in Pulsar-like High-Lat Unidentified Fermi Sources', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-aisqhla
