The PCA team has a new method to help users remove high-voltage breakdown events
which can contaminate PCA data. See the new RXTE recipe,
Dealing with PCA Breakdown Events.
Observations of two different systems -- both containing stellar-mass black holes -- are showing
astronomers how much they have yet to learn. Coordinated observations of these systems using the
European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer reveal
surprising dips in optical brightness moments before high-energy flares erupt.
The systems are Swift J1753.5-0127 -- discovered by NASA's Swift satellite -- and GX 339-4. In
them, a black hole and a normal star orbit a few million miles apart. That's less than 10 percent of
the distance between Mercury and our sun. [Read More]
NASA has approved extending RXTE operations beyond the nominal end of Cycle 12 (December 2008) through
September 2009. For more information, see the RXTE Cycle 13 Information
Page.
The RXTE SOF's Realtime and Pseudo-production data retrieval site has moved. If
you are looking for the SOF's Realtime or Pseudo-production data areas, the
new, permanent sites are:
New RXTE Mission-Long Data Products
May 12, 2008
The RXTE Guest Observer Facility (GOF) has begun generating Mission-Long
Data Products based on the standard data products (StdProds) from the
PCA and HEXTE, for over 200 sources that have been observed many times
with RXTE during its mission. These products combine all "good" RXTE
observations for a given source, over the lifetime of the RXTE mission.
The mission-long data products are intended to give a researcher an idea
of how much, and what quality of, data are available in the RXTE public
archive for their sources of interest. They are not meant to replace the
careful reduction and analysis by individual scientists, but rather to
lead them towards data that will be suitable to their needs. Users should
bear in mind that only a single point is included for an observation. And
thus the impressive variability seen by many RXTE targets on short
timescales is entirely overlooked in the mission-long data products.
For more information, see our Mission-Long Data Products Guide.
Powerful Explosions Suggest Neutron Star Missing Link
February 21, 2008
Researchers using RXTE and Chandra report the first ever observations
of magnetar-like bursts from a normal young pulsar: "We are watching
one type of neutron star literally change into another right before our
very eyes. This is a long-sought missing link between different types of
pulsars," says lead author Fotis Gavriil of NASAs Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
The results appear inthe February 21 issue of Science Express.
For more information, see:
NASA Press
Release
Science Express
article (February 21, 2008)
Temporary Interruption of PCA SAA History File Production
January 22, 2008
Production of the PCA SAA History file, used for PCA
background generation, has been temporarily interrupted.
The latest file available contains PCA SAA History data
up through January 20, 2008. To analyze PCA data beyond
that date, please use the predictive SAA history file,
located in the same part of the XTE FTP area:
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/FTP/xte/calib_data/pca_bkgd/pca_saa_predict.gz
A similar notice will be posted when PCA SAA History file production
resumes.
