Tag Archive for 'XMM-Newton'

X-ray and infrared images of NGC 6099 HLX-1. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Inst. of Astronomy, Taiwan / Y-C Chang / ESA / STScI / HST / J. DePasquale.

Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Caught Eating Star in NGC 6099

Jul 27, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered intermediate-mass black hole, named NGC 6099 HLX-1, resides in a compact star cluster on the outskirts of the elliptical galaxy NGC...

This new composite image of the Andromeda galaxy includes X-rays from Chandra and XMM-Newton (represented in red, green, and blue); ultraviolet data from GALEX (blue); optical data from astrophotographers using ground based telescopes (Jakob Sahner and Tarun Kottary); infrared data from Spitzer, the Infrared Astronomy Satellite, COBE, Planck, and Herschel (red, orange, and purple); and radio data from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (red-orange). Image credit: NASA.

New Image Shows Andromeda Galaxy as We’ve Never Seen It Before

Jun 27, 2025 by News Staff

Using data from several space- and ground-based telescopes, NASA astronomers have captured a stunning new image of the Andromeda galaxy, which is the closest...

This image shows the Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / SDSS.

Supermassive Black Hole in Luminous Seyfert Galaxy Shows Signs of ‘Over-Eating’

Jun 17, 2025 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers from the University of Leicester describe for the first...

This artist’s impression shows an exoplanet (left) that has approached too close to a white dwarf (right) and been torn apart by tidal forces from the star. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / M. Weiss.

Enigmatic X-Ray Emission from Distant White Dwarf Points to Destroyed Exoplanet

Mar 5, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers may finally have settled the question of what is causing highly energetic X-rays from WD 2226-210, a white dwarf star located at the center...

In the center of the image, the stars cluster to form a bright and dense green candy floss-colored haze, that is the Large Magellanic Cloud. Scattered across the middle of the image are about 50 small yellow crosses, some of them are so close to one another that they almost overlap. SNR J0624-6948 (orange, higher in the image) and SNR J0614-7251 (blue, lower in the image) are seen in the lower left quarter of the image. Image credit: Eckhard Slawik / ESA / XMM-Newton / Sasaki et al. / F. Zangrandi.

XMM-Newton Spots Two Supernova Remnants in Outskirts of Milky Way’s Satellite Galaxy

Feb 12, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Named SNR J0614-7251 and SNR J0624-6948, the newly-discovered supernova remnants reside in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the largest satellite...

In this artist’s concept, matter is stripped from a white dwarf (sphere at lower right) orbiting within the innermost accretion disk surrounding 1ES 1927+654’s supermassive black hole. Image credit: NASA / Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University.

XMM-Newton Detects Mysterious X-Ray Oscillations in Supermassive Black Hole

Jan 14, 2025 by News Staff

In 2018, astronomers observed that the corona of 1ES 1927+654, an actively accreting, 1.4-million-solar-mass black hole located in a galaxy around 270...

This artist impression shows ultra-fast winds blasting out from the center of galaxy Markarian 817. These winds, moving at many millions of km per hour, clear out interstellar gas from a vast region of space. Without this gas, the galaxy can’t form new stars and the black hole in the galactic center has little left to eat. The inset shows what is happening at galaxy’s heart. A supermassive black hole draws in gas from its surroundings, which forms a hot, brightly lit accretion disk (orange). The cause of the winds (white) is magnetic fields within the disk, which fling particles out in all directions at incredibly high speeds. These winds effectively block out X-rays (blue) which are sent out by the extremely hot plasma surrounding the black hole, called the corona. Zak et al. caught Markarian 817 blasting out ultra-fast winds using ESA’s X-ray telescope XMM-Newton. Lasting for around a year, the winds will have significantly affected star formation in the galaxy. The fact that the black hole at the center of the galaxy was showing rather average activity levels before producing the winds suggests that ultra-fast black hole winds are much more common than previously thought. In other words, black holes and their host galaxies strongly affect each other’s evolution. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

XMM-Newton Detects Ultra-Fast Black Hole Wind in Markarian 817

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

Markarian 817 is a Seyfert 1 galaxy located 430 million light-years away in the constellation of Draco. Also known as Mrk 817 or QSO J1436+5847, it hosts...

This artist’s impression shows the millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Matter Ejections Explain Peculiar High-Low Mode Switches in Distant Millisecond Pulsar

Aug 30, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 is known to switch between two brightness modes almost constantly, something that until now has been an enigma. This...

A giant black hole in PGC 43234 destroyed a large star and threw its pieces into space; the X-ray data reveal the relative amount of nitrogen compared to carbon in this stellar debris field. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Michigan / Miller et al. / M. Weiss.

ASASSN-14li: Supermassive Black Hole Destroys Massive Star, Throws Its Pieces into Space

Aug 22, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and other telescopes have found evidence for a massive stellar disruption (over...

IXPE and Chandra images have been combined to show X-ray data of the area around Sagittarius A. The lower panel combines IXPE data, in orange, with Chandra data in blue. The upper panel depicts a much wider field-of-view of the center of the Milky Way. The thin white lines layered onto the top panel frame the highlighted area, and indicate that the perspective in the bottom panel has been rotated approximately 45 degrees to the right. The combination of IXPE and Chandra data helped the astronomers determine that the X-ray light identified in the molecular clouds originated from Sagittarius A* during an outburst approximately 200 years ago. Image credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center / Marin et al. / CXC / SAO / L. Frattare / J.Major / K.Arcand.

IXPE Detects 200-Year-Old Flare from Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Jun 22, 2023 by News Staff

The center of the Milky Way Galaxy hosts Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 4 million solar masses that is very quiescent....

This composite image features four separate images that combine X-ray data from Chandra and infrared data from Webb, and some data from other telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer and XMM-Newton. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / ESA / XMM-Newton / CSA / STScI / JPL / CalTech / ESO / L. Frattare / J. Major / K. Arcand.

Webb Captures Two Galaxies, Star-Forming Nebula, and Star Cluster

May 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

New images that combine data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and several space- and ground-based telescopes show spiral galaxies NGC 1672...

Illustration of an Earth-like exoplanet after X-ray radiation exposure. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

X-Ray-Luminous Supernovae Pose Threat to Earth-Like Planetary Atmospheres, Study Says

Apr 20, 2023 by News Staff

The aftermaths of supernovae always produce X-rays, but if the supernova’s blast wave strikes dense surrounding gas, it can produce a particularly large...

Kosec et al. mapped the winds associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a binary system located 6,600 parsecs (21,526 light-years) away in the constellation of Hercules. Image credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT / D. Klochkov, ESA.

Astronomers Map Colossal ‘Disk Winds’ in Hercules X-1

Apr 12, 2023 by News Staff

Hercules X-1 is an X-ray binary system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a Sun-like star. This neutron star’s accretion disk is unique...

This composite image shows at least three galaxy clusters colliding in a jumbled scene. The resulting giant galaxy cluster, known as Abell 2256, resembles a grainy, pixilated, sky blue cloud topped with licks of flaming red hair. The cloud is adorned with red shapes and streaks, and set against a black background heavily dotted with colorful specks. The image combines X-ray, radio, optical, and infrared data. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Bolonga / Rajpurohit et al. / ESA / XMM-Newton / LOFAR / ASTRON / NCRA / TIFR / GMRT / NSF / NRAO / VLA / Pan-STARRS.

Astronomers Capture Ongoing Collision of Three Galaxy Clusters

Feb 1, 2023 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and three radio telescopes (the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, the Low Frequency Array,...

An artist’s impression of a hot Jupiter in a binary stellar system. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Hot-Jupiter Exoplanets Slow Down Aging Process for Their Host Stars

Nov 3, 2022 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft, astronomers have looked for the effects of massive, close-in planets...

Multi-wavelength image of Westerhout 50 (red - radio, green - optical, yellow - soft X-rays, magenta - medium energy X-rays, cyan - hard X-ray emission). The eastern lobe X-ray image highlights the XMM-Newton data (with the brightening at the edge of the field of view cropped here to highlight the source emission). The western lobe X-ray image shows only partial Chandra coverage of part of the nebula. Image credit: Safi-Harb et al., arXiv: 2207.00573.

Astronomers Find Evidence for Unusual Particle Acceleration in Manatee Nebula

Jul 5, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and its Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have...

This artist’s illustration depicts what Chu et al. think is happening in the binary system KPD 0005+5106. The data suggest the white dwarf (blue sphere) is blasting a companion object (brown and red object on right), which is either a low-mass star or planet, with waves of heat and radiation. The white dwarf is also pulling material from the companion into a disk around itself, which the artist shows in orange, before it slams into its north and south poles. This process is contributing to the destruction of the companion through powerful gravitational forces. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss / ASIAA / Chu et al.

Hard X-Ray Emission from White Dwarfs Reveals Their Hidden Companions

Nov 23, 2021 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite, astronomers have investigated unusual X-ray activity in three white dwarfs:...

This Hubble image shows DEM L249, a remnant of Type Ia supernova located some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Mensa. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Y. Chou, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Observes Distant Remnant of Type Ia Supernova

Nov 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shot this image of the supernova remnant DEM L249. This Hubble image shows DEM L249, a remnant of Type Ia supernova...

Wilkins et al. observed bright flares of X-ray emissions, produced as gas falls into a supermassive black hole in I Zwicky 1; the flares echoed off of the gas falling into the black hole, and as the flares were subsiding, short flashes of X-rays were seen -- corresponding to the reflection of the flares from the far side of the disk, bent around the black hole by its strong gravitational field. Image credit: Dan Wilkins.

Astronomers Detect Light Echoes Coming from Behind Supermassive Black Hole

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, astronomers have observed X-ray flares emitted from around the supermassive black hole in...

Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Zhonghua Yao / William Dunn.

Planetary Scientists Solve Mystery of Jupiter’s X-Ray Auroral Flares

Jul 12, 2021 by News Staff

The rapidly rotating, strong magnetic field of Jupiter provides a natural lab that is key to understanding the dynamics of high-energy plasmas. Spectacular...

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