XMM Newton is a powerful X-ray space telescope launched in 1999. It is named after Isaac Newton, the English mathematician and physicist who discovered gravity. The telescope is designed to observe distant objects such as black holes and neutron stars. It can also be used to study the hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
XMM Newton is equipped with three large telescopes, each with an mirrors that focus X-rays onto detectors. The detectors are made of silicon or cadmium zinc telluride, which are sensitive to X-rays with energies between 0.2 and 12 keV. The telescopes have a combined collecting area of about 1200 cm2, making it the largest X-ray telescope ever built.
XMM Newton has made many important discoveries since its launch. In 2001, it observed an unusual burst of X-rays from a magnetar, a type of neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field. This event helped astronomers understand how these strange objects work. In 2003, XMM Newton observed the most distant supernova explosion ever seen. This event occurred 11 billion years ago, just 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
XMM Newton has also been used to study the hot gas in galaxy clusters. These studies have shown that this gas plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies by stripping them of their cold gas (the fuel for star formation). By understanding how this process works, we can better understand how galaxies evolve over time.