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XMM Large Scale Survey: First results
Credit: XMM Large-Scale Survey Consortium; ESA; A. Read


X-ray Panorama

As Woody Allen (or was it Kilgore Trout?) said, "The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest". It's also a deep place. Long observations with large, sensitive detectors help astronomers map its 3-D structure. Deep X-ray surveys are particularly useful since they can readily identify clusters of galaxies and quasars, which allow astronomers to map out the distribution of matter on large scales. The map above shows a first result of the Large Scale Survey currently being conducted by the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. This map represents a "true-color" mosaic of a number of XMM-Newton images, in which the color of a source represents the energy of the X-rays it emits. This mosaic is the largest deep X-ray image of the sky obtained so far.


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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 Monday, 26-Feb-2024 17:36:57 EST