2005/08/10 by M. G. F. Kirsch et al., Marcus Kirsch, U. G. Briel +19 · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Art #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Calibration #Candle #Cosmic distance ladder #Crab Nebula #Crab Pulsar #EPIC #Flux (metallurgy) #Gamma ray #Neutron star #Parchment #Physics #ROSAT #Redshift #Satellite #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1117/12.616893
12 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2005/08/10 · openalex publication_date 2005/08/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Various X-ray satellites have used the Crab as a standard candle to perform their calibrations in the past. The calibration of XMM-Newton, however, is independent of the Crab nebula, because this object has not been used to adjust spectral calibration issues. In 2004 a number of special observations were performed to measure the spectral parameters and the absolute flux of the Crab with XMM-Newton's EPIC-pn CCD camera. We describe the results of the campaign in detail and compare them with data of four current missions (Integral, Swift, Chandra, RXTE) and numerous previous missions (ROSAT, EXOSAT, Beppo-SAX, ASCA, Ginga, Einstein, Mir-HEXE).