The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has discovered a remarkable group of virgul100 quasarswith extremely weak emission lines in their rest-frame optical-UV spectra. Wepropose to extend our XMM-Newton observations of such sources and obtain imagingspectroscopy of six quasars of this class with a total exposure time of 128 ks,providing virgul1000 photons per source. This will enable an accurate measurement ofthe hard-X-ray photon index required for a robust determination of the accretionrate in each source. Steep spectral slopes will indicate that high accretionrates may be responsible for the intrinsic weakness of the optical-UV emissionlines. The proposed observations will lead to new insights about the accretionprocess and broad emission line formation in all active galactic nuclei.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2014-08-08T19:35:14Z/2014-08-09T06:25:14Z
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 Ohad Shemmer, 2015, 'Weak Line Quasars at High Redshift: Extremely High Accretion Rate SourcesquestionMark', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-8avt4we
