X-ray telescope door One of three x-ray telescopes The OM telescope One of three x-ray telescopes X-ray telescope door Electronic platform Electronic platform Gratings Propellant (in yellow) and the thruster (in red) Propellant (in yellow) and the thruster (in red) Main body of the telescope Outgassing device EPIC cameras The end cap
ESA 
XMM Satellite Schoolpage
















The Design Page (Back) Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS)



     Two of XMM's X-ray telescopes will also incorporate a reflection grating spectrometer for measuring the wavelengths of incoming X-rays. The Reflection Gratings share the collected X-rays with the EPIC camera on the same telescope, each receiving about 50% of the collected radiation. In the grating spectrometer, the X-ray beam is bent through an angle which is nearly proportional to its wavelength and then recorded on another MOS CCD camera. These cameras are elongated so that they can collect light diffracted over a range of angles corresponding to different X-ray wavelengths.
    When XMM is observing an astronomical source, the x-rays are often concentrated at particular wave lengths or spectrum lines which correspond to the chemical elements present in the source. This allows its chemical composition and temperature to be deduced.
     To find out more about the RGS, click here and follow the links to instrumentation.




The University of Birmingham 

Physics and Astronomy Department, The University of Birmingham