The seven nearest thermally emitting neutron stars may be the best way to sampleneutron stars demography, and may offer the best prospects for measuring neutronstar radii. But both tasks are limited by our ignorance of their magneticfields; hence we have been determining timing solutions with Chandra and XMM.The results so far show a tight grouping of magnetic fields in a range betweennormal pulsars and magnetars. This is surprising and interesting, butlower-than-expected spin-down rates mean that for two sources spin-down wasdetected only marginally. We propose two short observations of each of those twosources to complete our timing solutions. We will then have precise spin-downmeasurements for all six thermally emitting neutron stars with confirmed periodicities.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2011-05-02T19:47:54Z/2012-04-20T09:23:51Z
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, Prof David Kaplan, 2013, 'Completing the Spin-down Measurements of Two Nearby Isolated Neutron Stars', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-2wybyqm
