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Auxiliary images

The auxiliary images for each catalogue source are available via the XSA interface provided by the ESA's XMM-Newton SOC. This page includes the complete set for an arbitrarily chosen source.

Broad-band X-ray image

Example: Broad-band X-ray image

The broad-band X-ray image is created from a mosaic of all images between 0.2 and 12.0 keV and covers 10′×10′, centred at the source position, in North-up East-left orientation. It is shown on a "heat" colour scale with a square-root stretch and automatically chosen intensity cuts. Extended sources are marked by a circle that scales with the source extent, unresolved (point-like) sources by a box of fixed size. The image legend informs about the source coordinate, extent, quality flag, and the number of contributing pointings for which the source lies within the field of view.

Three-band RGB X-ray image

Example: Three-band RGB X-ray image

The colour-coded three-band image is created and scaled analogously to the broad-band image using the red channel for the 0.2–1.0 keV band (XMM-Newton energy bands 1 and 2), the green channel for the 1.0–2.0 keV band (XMM-Newton energy band 3), and the blue channel for the 2.0–12.0 keV band (XMM-Newton energy bands 4 and 5).

Optical finding chart

Example: Optical finding chart

The optical finding chart has a side length of 2′ and is the highest-quality image out of Pan-STARRS G, skyMapper G, and ESO Online Digitized Sky Survey DSS2 blue and red band. It is generated using tools based on the HiPS standard initially designed by the Astronomical Data Center (CDS) of the Observatoire de Strasbourg and adopted by the Virtual Observatory. The image cuts are tuned to highlight the fainter features.

Long-term light curve

Example: Long-term light curve

If the source has non-zero counts during at least two observations, a long-term light curve is created from the stacked and the observation-level mean EPIC fluxes. The legend informs about the source coordinate, extent, quality flag, and the number of contributing pointings for which the source lies within the field of view. Different plot symbols are used to indicate tentative short- and long-term variability. The stacked flux is plotted with a filled circle, if the variability VAR_PROB of the source fluxes to be consistent with constant flux is 1% or lower. Probabilities of short-term variability are included in 3XMM-DR7 for detections with at least 100 counts and indicated in the long-term light curves by the plot symbols of the fluxes calculated for each observation in the stacked catalogue. The flux is plotted with a filled circle, if a 3XMM-DR7 observation has been associated with the source in the stacked catalogue and if its short-term variability flag VAR_FLAG_3XMMDR7 is true. Open circles are used in the opposite cases for tentatively non-variable sources. Two additional plot symbols are introduced for the flux per observation: an open box of arbitrary size, if too few counts were collected during the observation to derive information on short-term variability in 3XMM-DR7, and a small dot if no 3XMM-DR7 detection has been associated with the source.


Last Update: 10-July-2018