God Bless America

May 23 2000

There hasn't been too much out of the ESA in the last few weeks, as their E-mail list went strangely quite. When it did start back up, most of what was on it was already in the nightly news, or was of meetings and such that most on this list would find totally boring. But never fear there are a few gems to glean :-)

From the European Space Agency (ESA): 
New X-ray space observatory.
Ability of XMM-Newton.
Sudden and dramatic alteration in a binary star system.

Calibration of XMM-Newton's science instruments is continuing at a steady pace in view of the start of the operational phase of the mission next month. Since the end of commissioning, ESA's new X-ray space observatory has been viewing an average of one or more calibration target every day. One such target has been NGC 2516, a young open cluster in the southern hemisphere.

More At:
http://spdext.estec.esa.nl/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=18715 

To demonstrate the remarkable ability of XMM-Newton to discover faint X-ray sources, a series of observations is being made in the area known as the 'Lockman hole'.

More At:
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=18815 

XMM-Newton is blessed with good luck! During the current calibration campaign of its science instruments ESA's new X-ray observatory has chanced on a sudden and dramatic alteration in a binary star system, whose properties had not changed for thirty years.

More at:
http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=1&cid=1&oid=19360

LL&P, 
Lt. Steven Fredette 
C.O. USS DeGaulle NCC-6365 
Deputy Chief, Starfleet Command's Space Activities Committee

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