Heavily obscured accretion is believed to be an extremely important phase in thegrowth of supermassive black holes, and to produce a signi cant fraction of theCosmic X-ray background. Studying in detail the broad-band X-ray emission of the830 AGN reported in the 70-months Swift/BAT catalog, we found evidence of CTobscuration in 55 objects, which makes this the largest sample of CT AGN in thelocal Universe. We propose to observe the remaining 10/55 sources which lack anXMM-Newton or Suzaku observation as a ful l program. These observations willconstrain the brightest end of the luminosity function of CT AGN and theevolution of the covering factor of the CT material, besides serving as abenchmark to study luminous CT AGN at higher redshifts.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2021-01-19T20:49:44Z/2021-04-13T13:24:13Z
Version
19.16_20210326_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 Michael Koss, 2022, 'A Complete Census Compton-thick AGN in the local Universe from Swift BAT', 19.16_20210326_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-7i8qcdp
