Credit: Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH
The X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission
XMM, the X-ray
Multi-Mirror Mission, is the second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 program
of the European Space Agency (ESA).
XMM is currently planned to be launched in December 1999, is more than
30ft long and weighs almost four tons. The telescope will be put into an elliptical orbit 71,250 miles by 4,300 miles and will take 48 hours
to go around the Earth once. The observatory consists of three coaligned
high throughput 7.5m focal length telescopes with 6 arc second FWHM (15 arc
second HPD) angular resolution. XMM will provide images over a 30 arc
minute field of view with moderate spectral resolution using the European Photon
Imaging Camera (EPIC). High-resolution spectral information is provided
by the Reflection
Grating Spectrometer (RGS). The observatory also has a coaligned 30cm optical/UV
telescope called the Optical Monitor
(OM).
Last Week *
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Each week the HEASARC
brings you new, exciting and beautiful images from X-ray and Gamma ray
astronomy. Check back each week and be sure to check out the HEAPOW archive!
Page Author: Dr. Michael F.
Corcoran
Last modified November 30, 1999
