MSSL Beginner's Guides
Presentations given to Groups and Societies
Missions, Present and future
Scientific Projects

XMM NEWTON SCHOOLS COMPETITION

In February this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its third competition, aimed at 16 to 18 year olds in their final two years of school. Entrants had to think of a fascinating project for the XMM Newton observatory and the winners will be able to visit the XMM Newton Science Operations Centre at Vilspa, ESA's tracking station near Madrid, and see their observations made for real! Full details of the competition may be found on ESA's web site. Winners will be announced in mid-June.

The closing date for entries has now passed, but if you want to learn more about XMM and X-ray astronomy we have included some useful links below:

The AstroGroup Beginner's Guides are a good starting point for some general astronomy topics as well some specifically written for common X-ray sources like quasars (or active galactic nuclei) and binary stars.

Another very good place to start is the web version of PPARC's XMM Newton brochure (PPARC is the Particle Physics and Astronomical Research Council). It describes all of the main X-ray emitting sources, where X-rays come from and the XMM Newton observatory itself.

Then there is the UK XMM Newton Information Centre. This site has information for anyone and everyone interested in XMM Newton: schoolchildren, students and adults as well as professional astronomers. It contains all the information you will ever need, but some of it is in far too much detail (and astronomer gobbledygook). But don't let that put you off! There is lots of very useful information! Look for the links marked with the stars... from the menu bar on the left, go to XMM Brochure (the same as we have here), Latest News, XMM for Schools (this page to be opened shortly!), XMM Science, Overview (although this does get a bit technical) and Schematic. These will be most suitable for straightforward information about XMM Newton. There will also be a noticeboard at this main site soon.

Leicester University's Education and Outreach pages have a guide to space and astronomy.

The Cambridge X-ray Astronomy Group have interactive web demos of X-ray astronomy, galaxy clusters and active galactic nuclei (quasars).

Birmingham University's Astrophysics and Space Research Group have a special XMM Newton web site for schools.

Finally, if you want to cross the Atlantic, there is NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Education and Public Outreach with loads of information for students and teachers.

MSSL BEGINNER'S GUIDES

• A Guide to Active Galactic Nuclei
  
• Zoom in to the heart of a quasar with this animation
  
• The Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei
  
• An explanation of cosmological redshift
  
• A cartoon of the expanding Universe
  
• A Beginner's Guide to the Cosmic Microwave Background
  
• A Beginner's Guide to Spectra
  
• AGN research at MSSL - galaxies, quasars and their evolution
  

• A Guide to Binary Star Systems
  
• The evolution of stars - from birth to supernovae
  
• Binary star research - cataclysmic variables
  

PRESENTATIONS GIVEN TO GROUPS, SCHOOLS AND SOCIETIES

Space Exploration with Cassini and XMM

X-ray Breathing Monsters

The Astrophysical Case for Black Holes

The Big Bang

The Birth, Life and Violent Death of Stars

MISSIONS, PRESENT AND FUTURE

XMM

• The UK XMM Information Centre on the WWW is now open, providing resources and guidance to prospective XMM observers directly from the UK instrument teams, and information about the ESA XMM observatory for members of the public.
  
• The Optical Monitor on XMM The optical/UV telescope to be mounted on the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission; due for launch early in the year 2000
  
• The Reflection Grating Spectrometer The high resolution X-ray spectrometer for XMM
  
• The XMM Survey Science Centre (SSC) at MSSL leading the X-ray Identification programme (XID) Making optical identifications of serendipitous X-ray sources discovered by XMM
  

Information about the SWIFT mission	Jet-X - an X-ray telescope for the Spectrum-X mission	FIRST - the Far Infra-Red Space Telescope

SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS

The XMM SSC-XID database making optical identifications of serendipitous XMM sources	The RIXOS Project identifying a large survey of serendipitous ROSAT sources