The poorly-understood Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission (GRXE) is an X-raybackground concentrated around the Galactic plane, primarily composed ofdifficult to resolve discrete sources. The most promising candidates for itsorigin above a few keV are the intermediate polars (IPs), a class of magneticcataclysmic variables (CVs), consisting of a strongly magnetic white dwarf and aRoche-lobe filling companion. Most of the 49 confirmed IPs are X-ray bright (L_Xapprox 10^33 erg/s) but there may be a more numerous undiscovered population offainter (L_X approx 10^31 erg/s) IPs. We propose to observe 13 underluminous IPcandidates to confirm their nature as IPs, to search for the underluminous IPpopulation, detect spin period
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2017-04-19T03:56:18Z/2018-04-21T14:31:22Z
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 Hauke Worpel, 2019, 'Unveiling the Xray faint intermediate polars-source of the Galactic Ridge X-rays', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-jmefv2o
