The XMM-Newton Slew Survey: Towards The Whole X-ray Sky and the Rarest X-ray Events

TL;DR

This paper discusses the XMM-Newton Slew Survey's progress in covering nearly half the sky, highlighting its potential for discovering rare high-variability X-ray sources through comparison with RASS data.

Contribution

It presents the current status and potential of the XMM-Newton Slew Survey for near-complete sky coverage and rare event detection.

Findings

Almost half the sky covered by the Slew Survey.

Sensitivity comparable to RASS in the soft X-ray band.

Potential for discovering extremely rare high-variability objects.

Abstract

The data collected by XMM-Newton as it slews between pointings currently cover almost half the entire sky, and many familiar features and new sources are visible. The soft-band sensitivity limit of the Slew is close to that of the RASS, and a large-area Slew-RASS comparison now provides the best opportunity for discovering extremely rare high-variability objects.