THE XMM-NEWTON SPECTRAL DATABASE I. GEORGANTOPOULOS A. CORRAL NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS
OUTLINE OF THE TALK • Introduce ourselves • X-ray Astronomy • ESA’s XMM mission • The largest catalogue of X-ray sources ever (3XMM) • Maximising the XMM source catalogue: Prodex project A: 2012-2014 The XMM spectral catalogue Prodex project B: 2016-2018 The photometric redshifts THE FUTURE ATHENA
INTRODUCING OUR GROUP • X-ray Astronomy group / IAASARS Institute / National Observatory of Athens • National Observatory is the oldest research Centre in Greece (1842) • Consists of 3 Institutes, IAASARS being the largest • X-ray Astronomy Group -2 permanent members of staff - 1 scientific research staff, 2 postdocs 2 research students - • working primarily with XMM-Newton (ESA) but also with other missions such as NASA’s Chandra and SWIFT. • We try to maintain our group the forefront of research (Active Galactic Nuclei) introducing novel techniques in data analysis (e.g. Bayesian methods) WE PARTICIPATE IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE GERMAN/RUSSIAN MISSION EROSITA, TWO PRODEX PROJECTS FOR XMM, AND WE ARE PART OF ESA’S ATHENA GROUND SEGMENT
X-RAY ASTRONOMY & ESA • X-ray astronomy is at the heart of ESA’s core program (astrophysics/space sciences): • EXOSAT, XMM and in several years ATHENA (notice ESA’s X-ray programme growing fast and outpacing the US over the years) • what is all about and why do we care to spend almost 1bn ? • The X-rays observe the hot and energetic Universe invisible in other wavelengths
X-RAY ASTRONOMY WHAT IS IT ? • The higher the temperature of a body, the higher the energy of the emission X-RAY ARE PRODUCED BY PLASMA WITH A TEMPERATURE OF MILLION DEGREES MOST OFTEN THIS ULTRA-HOT MATERIAL IS FOUND AROUND BLACK HOLES (BH) AT THE CENTRES OF GALAXIES (ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI OR AGN) XMM/CDFS
ESA’S XMM-NEWTON MISSION • Launched 16 years ago and still performing perfectly well • XMM enjoys a huge success with over 4500 research papers and a vast number of citation s • Carrying 3 X-ray telescopes which are the largest ever (they can accumulate a large amount of photons): • producing sharp images and at the same time X-ray spectra • these spectra are the subject of our prodex projects
X-RAY SPECTRA SPECTRUM OF AN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS (AGN) BLACK IS THE OBSERVED WE CAN DECOMPOSE THE DIFFERENT PHYSICAL COMPONENTS AND REVEAL THE STRUCTURE OF THE MATTER NEAR THE BLACK HOLE
SPECTRUM THROUGH THIS SPECTRUM ‘MAGIC’ WE CAN RECONSTRUCT THE REGION AROUND THE BLACK HOLE
THE XMM LEGACY: THE XMM SOURCE CATALOGUE XMM OBSERVATIONS ARE PROPRIETARY FOR 12 MONTHS. THEN THEY BECOME PUBLIC. THE XMM CATALOG EXPLOITS THESE OBSERVATIONS FOR SERENDIPITOUS SOURCES
THE 3XMM CATALOGUE 4% of the sky and still growing 1750 sq. degrees 700,000 sources (median flux 2.4x10-14 cgs 0.5-2 keV)
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE X-RAY UNIVERSE PRE-1970 I.E. THE UHURU MISSION 30 X-RAY SOURCES UHURU MISSION 340 X-RAY SOURCES OVER THE WHOLE SKY XMM 700,000 SOURCES
OUR PRODEX. THE SPECTRAL CATALOG • 120,000 sources had enough counts to produce an X-ray spectrum. • All these have been automatically analysed • using PERL scripts and the XSPEC spectral fit public software • in a very intensive computational effort (running for many weeks in an 8-processor cluster). • This is a major tool for the astronomical community both non X-ray astronomers and X-ray astronomers alike. • The analysis of X-ray spectra is very demanding impeding astronomers of other wavelengths to easily do it • Even for X-ray astronomers, experienced in the analysis, the database that can be searched for a specific type of source is extremely powerful tool. THIS PRODEX PROJECT PROVIDES ADDITIONAL IMPACT TO THE XMM CATALOG FOR YEARS TO COME
THE CURRENT PRODEX PROJECT • need to have the distances of the (extragalactic) sources in order to enhance the impact of the 3XMM catalog. • This will be done with the use of photometric redshifts. these methods use optical photometry to derive the source’s redshift. • Machine learning techniques are used • The current project will be based on the work performed by the EU FP7 Arches project (found optical counterparts for all 3XMM sources)
THE PRODUCTS • The catalog is available in the NOA website in Greece and also in the searchable X-ray Astronomy database LEDAS in Leicester • Refereed Publications in the international Astronomy&Astrophysics journal fully explaining the catalogue and provide example scientific results • The software has been handed to the XMM Survey Science Centre so that new sources are analysed as long as XMM operates.
THE FUTURE: ESA’S ATHENA MISSION launch 2028. The largest X-ray mission ever. It will consolidate Europe’s as the leader in X-ray Astronomy THE IAASARS/NOA AND CRETE ARE AMONG THE FEW INSTITUTES IN EUROPE THAT IS ALREPARTICIPATING IN ATHENA’S GROUND SEGMENT (THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOFTWARE FOR THE PIPELINE AND DATA ANALYSIS) PRODEX WILL EXPAND AND SUPPORT OUR ROLE IN THIS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT SPACE PROJECT
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