While optical telescopes show only the individual galaxies, X-ray telescopes also reveal the hot gas that concentrates at the core of the galaxy cluster due to gravity. XMM thus makes it possible to explore the gravitational field, estimate the effects of dark matter and calculate the temperature profile of the gas. It is located at the center of the Virgo galaxy cluster and is presumed to contain a black hole that emits a so-called jet, or energetic ray of matter. In addition to recording the spectra of the galaxy core and the jet, the researchers also used XMM to study the immediate vicinity of M87 and, based on the X-ray spectrum, determined for the first time the precise spatial distribution of various elements in the hot gas cloud, such as iron, oxygen and silicon. German scientists were involved in over 50 percent of the 56 articles.
Any interested scientist can apply for observation time.
Due to its expertise in X-ray optics, the MPE also supplies the telescope scientist for the XMM project. Under his direction, mirror probes, individual mirrors and assembled mirror systems were measured in the MPE's own X-ray test facility. The scientific payload consists of three parallel telescopes that are each equipped with a complex mirror system made up of 58 concentric Wolter mirrors. The three cameras of the focal instrumentation were supplied by an international consortium of German, British, Italian and French scientists. The instrumentation is supplemented by an optical monitor for simultaneous observations in visible and ultraviolet light, which was supplied by institutes from Great Britain, the USA and Belgium.