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Session 96 - High-Throughput Spectroscopy & Imaging with XMM.
Oral session, Friday, January 09
International Ballroom East,
The Optical/UV Monitor was developed to extend the spectral range of ESA's X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission from X-ray (0.1 to 10 keV) to ultraviolet and optical wavelengths, thus providing simultaneous, broad spectral coverage of highly time variable phenomena. The OM experiment, which consists of a 30 cm modified Ritchey-Chretien telescope and a photon counting detector operating from 1600 to 6000 Angstroms, is being developed by an international consortium comprising British, Belgium, and U.S. investigators. The field of view of the OM is well-matched to the central field of view of the X-ray cameras on XMM. With low sky background in space, the sensitivity of the OM for detecting stars will be comparable to that of a 4 m telescope on Earth; a B = 24th magnitude star should be detectable in 1000s in unfiltered light. A 10-position filter wheel includes two grisms to provide low resolution spectroscopy. The pixel size of the detector corresponds to 0.5 arcseconds; a magnifier in the filter wheel allows for 4x higher spatial resolution in optical light. Several scientific applications of the multiwavelength capability of XMM will be highlighted, among them studies of the nature of faint X-ray source populations, accretion flows in compact binary systems, the spectra of high-redshift quasars and other AGN, the nature of pulsar emission, and populations studies of M31.
