Astronomers Map Black Hole Surroundings Using “Cosmic Echo-Location”
Material falling into a black hole casts X-rays out into space – and now astronomers have used the echoes of this radiation to map the…
XMM-Newton News
Black Hole Dynamic Behavior and Surroundings Mapped by XMM-Newton for the First Time
Material falling into a black hole casts X-rays out into space – and now, for the first time, ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has used the…
Astronomers Discover the Best Places to Look for “Genesis II” and Intelligent Alien Life
Orange Dwarf Stars Most Likely to Host Planets To date astronomers have discovered over 4,000 planets orbiting other stars. Statistically, there should be over 100…
X-Ray Space Observatory XMM-Newton Celebrates 20 Years in Space [Video]
Two decades ago, on December 10, 1999, an Ariane 5 rocket climbed into the morning sky from Kourou, French Guiana. It carried into orbit the…
Chandra Reveals Galactic Storm Raging in Teacup Galaxy
Fancy a cup of cosmic tea? This one isn’t as calming as the ones on Earth. In a galaxy hosting a structure nicknamed the “Teacup,”…
XMM-Newton Observes Matter Falling Into a Black Hole
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light, located in…
Students Spot Mysterious X-Ray Source in Globular Cluster NGC 6540
An enigmatic X-ray source revealed as part of a data-mining project for high-school students shows unexplored avenues hidden in the vast archive of ESA’s XMM-Newton…
Astronomers Continue to Unravel the Mystery of the Universe’s Missing Matter
Astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory have probed the gas-filled haloes around galaxies in a quest to find ‘missing’ matter thought to reside there, but…
Study Shows Star RZ Piscium May Be Devouring Wrecked Planets
A team of U.S. astronomers studying the star RZ Piscium has found evidence suggesting its strange, unpredictable dimming episodes may be caused by vast orbiting…
Hitomi, XMM-Newton and Chandra Provide a New Twist in the Dark Matter Tale
An innovative interpretation of X-ray data from a cluster of galaxies could help scientists fulfill a quest they have been on for decades: determining the…
New Research Shows Jupiter’s X-Ray Auroras Pulse Independently
Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatories, astronomers reveal that Jupiter’s intense northern and southern lights pulse independently of each other. The study, published…
New X-Ray Study Provides Critical Clues About Star System Habitability
New research indicates older Sun-like stars settle down relatively quickly, boosting prospects for life to develop on planets around them. A new X-ray study has…
Scientists Measure Temperature Swings of Black Hole Winds for the First Time
A team of scientists has measured rapidly varying temperatures in hot gas emanating from around a black hole for the first time. These ultrafast “winds”…
Astronomers Discover the Brightest Pulsar to Date, NGC 5907 ULX
Using the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite and NASA’s NuSTAR, astronomers have discovered the brightest pulsar to date. There’s a new record holder for brightest…
Astronomers Discover Mysterious Cosmic Objects Erupting in X-rays
Using data from both Chandra and XMM-Newton, astronomers discovered two flaring objects in two different galaxies. These objects brighten in X-rays by a factor of…
Chandra Telescope Reveals Evidence for a “Wandering” Black Hole
Astronomers have discovered a “wandering” black hole in the outer regions of a galaxy about 4.5 billion light years from Earth. Evidence suggests this newly…
Astronomers Prove the Existence of a “Gravitational Vortex” Around a Black Hole
Using data from XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, astronomers have proved the existence of a “gravitational vortex” around a black hole. This new discovery, aided by NASA’s…
XMM-Newton Reveals the First ‘Wind Nebula’ Around a Magnetar
Using the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, a team of astronomers has discovered a vast cloud of high-energy particles around a rare ultra-magnetic neutron star for the…
