The seventh data release of the XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue (3XMM-DR7)

The first of June saw the seventh data release of the XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue (3XMM-DR7), the largest catalogue of X-ray sources ever created, with 499266 unique sources.

Sources that are bright in X-ray light are amongst the most energetic in the Universe and include matter swirling around black holes, explosions of the most massive stars known, magnetic events on stars, hot gas churning around in the centre of galaxy clusters and even aurora events on other planets in our Solar System. More information at the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre.