Fact Sheet

ESA's X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton is unique. It is the biggest scientific satellite ever built in Europe, its telescope mirrors are amongst the most powerful ever developed in the world, and with its sensitive cameras it can see much more than any previous X-ray satellite.

Announcement

News

News

The mystery of what causes Jupiter's X-ray auroras is solved
9 July 2021

The 40-year-old mystery of what causes Jupiter's X-ray auroras has been solved. For the first time, astronomers have seen the entire mechanism at work – and it could be a process occurring in many other parts of the Universe too.

XMM-Newton spies youngest baby pulsar ever discovered
17 June 2020

An observation campaign led by ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory reveals the youngest pulsar ever seen – the remnant of a once-massive star – that is also a 'magnetar', sporting a magnetic field some 70 quadrillion times stronger than that of the Earth. ​

Rethinking cosmology: Universe expansion may not be uniform
8 April 2020

Astronomers have assumed for decades that the Universe is expanding at the same rate in all directions. A new study based on data from ESA's XMM-Newton, NASA's Chandra and the German-led ROSAT X-ray observatories suggests this key premise of cosmology might be wrong.

XMM-Newton reveals giant flare from a tiny star
20 February 2020

A star of about eight percent the Sun's mass has been caught emitting an enormous 'super flare' of X-rays – a dramatic high-energy eruption that poses a fundamental problem for astronomers, who did not think it possible on stars that small.

XMM-Newton maps black hole surroundings
20 January 2020

Material falling into a black hole casts X-rays out into space – and now, for the first time, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has used the reverberating echoes of this radiation to map the dynamic behaviour and surroundings of a black hole itself.

XMM-Newton 20th anniversary

XMM-Newton 20th anniversary

XMM-Newton at 20: The fascinating X-ray universe
9 December 2019

ESA's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has now spent 20 years in orbit. In those two decades it has made many scientific breakthroughs, helping bring X-ray astronomy into the main stream of astronomical investigation.

XMM-Newton at 20: The large-scale Universe
9 December 2019

During its 20 years in space, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has made many exciting discoveries. But no one could have predicted that the very first observation of the spacecraft would be one of its most important.

XMM-Newton at 20: Taking care of the science operations
9 December 2019

On 10 December 1999, as XMM-Newton launched from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, no one was expecting that the mission would last for two decades.

Featured Articles

Featured Articles

Cluster and XMM-Newton pave the way for SMILE
27 August 2019The Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission is still four years away from launch, but scientists are already using existing ESA satellites, such as the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory and the Cluster mission studying Earth's magnetosphere, to pave the way for this pioneering venture.
19-Mar-2024 02:17 UT

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https://sci.esa.int/xmm-newton

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