Welcome to the XMM-Newton Science Operations Centre

The European Space Agency's (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESA's 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 Earth's 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.

Read more about the spacecraft, mirrors and instruments and about the XMM-Newton SOC.

News and Highlights

10-July-2025
XMM-Newton spacecraft animations released by NASA
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio has released new animations showcasing ESA's XMM-Newton observatory in celebration of its 25th year of operations. The animations include a flyby view of the spacecraft orbiting Earth and a turntable animation with background lighting, both available in 4K resolution. These visualizations highlight XMM-Newton's role as ESA's X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, which studies a wide variety of objects from distant galaxy clusters to planets in our solar system. NASA supports the U.S. scientific community's use of XMM-Newton and funded elements of its instrument package. The animations are available for download in multiple formats including H.264 and ProRes.
Further details on NASA SVS web portal.

08-July-2025
Astronomers investigate pulsar PSR J1930+1852 and its pulsar wind nebula
Using NuSTAR and XMM-Newton satellites, astronomers from New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi have observed a pulsar known as PSR J1930+1852 and its pulsar wind nebula (PWN) G54.1+0.3. The observations detected X-ray emission up to about 70 keV, with the nebula showing a broken power law spectrum with break energy at 5 keV. The study found that G54.1+0.3 has a characteristic age of 2,830 years, a magnetic field of about 7µG, and the pulsar's spin period is approximately 137.2 milliseconds, with typical parameters among young PWNe.
Further details on Phys.org web portal.

03-Jul-2025
Users' Group Meeting presentations online
The presentations given at the XMM-Newton Users' Group Meeting #26, held on 27^th and 28^th May 2025, at ESA/ESAC are now online.
They can be found on our XMM-Newton SOC web portal.

26-June-2025
NASA shares new views of our galactic neighbor, Andromeda
A stunning new composite image of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) combines X-ray data from NASA's Chandra Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton with ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio observations. The multi-wavelength view highlights energetic regions around Andromeda's central black hole and showcases structures across the galaxy. The release, accompanied by an audio "sonification", also honors astronomer Vera Rubin, whose work on M31 provided landmark evidence for dark matter.
Further details on Phys.org web portal.

19-June-2025
"The models were right": astronomers find 'missing' matter
Astronomers have discovered a huge filament of hot gas bridging four galaxy clusters using ESA's XMM-Newton and JAXA's Suzaku X-ray space telescopes. At 10 times as massive as our galaxy, the thread could contain some of the Universe's 'missing' matter, addressing a decades-long mystery. The filament contains around 10 times the mass of the Milky Way and connects four galaxy clusters in the Shapley Supercluster, stretching 23 million light-years through space. This research creates a new benchmark for spotting the light coming from the faint filaments of the cosmic web and reinforces our standard model of the cosmos, validating decades of simulations that suggest the 'missing' matter may truly be lurking in hard-to-see threads woven across the Universe.
Further details on ESA.int web portal.

17-June-2025
Four new X-ray supernova remnants detected in the galaxy NGC 7793
Using NASA's Chandra spacecraft and ESA's XMM-Newton satellite, astronomers have investigated the galaxy NGC 7793, searching for supernova remnants (SNRs). As a result, they discovered four new X-ray SNRs in this galaxy. The newfound X-ray SNRs have X-ray luminosities between 0.88 and 5.49 undecillion erg/s and exhibit soft X-ray emission with no significant short- or long-term variability. The spectra of the SNRs show soft emission typical of hot plasma with temperatures exceeding 2.5 million K, featuring strong oxygen and neon lines. The study also detected two additional candidate X-ray SNRs that show similar soft, non-variable X-ray emission characteristics.
Further details on Phys.org web portal.

News Archive