A selection of clusters from the first XCS data release (Mehrtens et al. 2012)

The XMM Cluster Survey (XCS) is a serendipitous X-ray galaxy cluster survey being conducted using archival data taken by ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite. Galaxy clusters trace the large scale structure of the universe, and their number density evolution with redshift provides a way to measure cosmological parameters, independent of cosmic microwave background experiments or supernovae cosmology projects.

Science Goals

• derivation of cosmological parameters
• measurement of X-ray scaling relations and their evolution
• galaxy evolution in dense environments
• properties of unusual (non cluster) X-ray sources, such as high redshift quasars and isolated neutron stars