XMM-Newton: 10 years old today!

The XMM-Newton space telescope is celebrating its 10th anniversary in space!

Although there is a huge amount of British involvement in XMM-Newton, it truly is an international mission. In brief...

• Two out of three X-ray camera's were built (and are maintained) in the UK (the EPIC-MOS camera's pictured above-left);
• The optical/UV telescope was built in the UK;
• One X-ray camera (the EPIC-PN) was built in Germany;
• Two spectrometers (the RGS) were built in the Netherlands and the USA;
• All three X-ray mirror modules were built in Italy;
• Data analysis software and data storage by the UK & USA;
• The spacecraft was assembled in the Netherlands;
• The radiation monitors were built in France;
• Continuous XMM-Newton support is based in Spain, with support from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, and the USA;

XMM-Newton has made some amazing discoveries about the high-energy Universe in that decade. Lots of images from those XMM-Newton discoveries can be found online at the XMM-Newton image gallery, and a slideshow is available on the BBC News online website, narrated by myself (Dr Darren Baskill) and my colleague Dr Kathy Romer here at the University of Sussex's Department of Physics & Astronomy.

The EPIC-MOS cameras were built in the UK by a team led by Martin Turner, who had helped plan and build XMM-Newton over more than 25 years, until his death 6 months ago. The last time I spoke to him, we were discussing how to celebrate XMM-Newton's 10th birthday. All our celebrations of the great success of XMM-Newton are done in the memory of Martin.