Related papers: Science with the EXTraS Project: Exploring the X-r…

ABRIDGED. We present "The XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey", two flux-limited samples with flux limit fx ~7E-14 cgs in the 0.5-4.5 keV (BSS) and 4.5-7.5 keV (HBSS) energy band, respectively. After discussing the survey strategy, we…

Soft X-ray transients are systems that are detected when they go into an outburst, wherein their X-ray luminosity increases several orders of magnitude. These outbursts are markers of the poorly understood change in the spectral state of…

We present an XMM-Newton observation of the bright, narrow-line, ultrasoft Seyfert 1 galaxy Ton S180. The 0.3-10 keV X-ray spectrum is steep and curved, showing a steep slope above 2.5 keV (Gamma ~ 2.3) and a smooth, featureless excess of…

Contemporary all-sky surveys have observed thousands of extragalactic transients in the nearby universe, and upcoming surveys will discover exponentially more at higher redshifts. With these large samples, population-level analysis of the…

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will observe $\sim$150~million stars brighter than $T_{\rm mag} \approx 16$, with photometric precision from 60~ppm to 3~percent, enabling an array of exoplanet and stellar astrophysics…

The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for supernovae and…

Low-cost mass-produced sensors and optics have recently made it feasible to build telescope arrays which observe the entire accessible sky simultaneously. In this article we discuss the scientific motivation for these telescopes, including…

Context. On the basis of XMM-Newton observations, we investigate the energy balance of selected magnetic cataclysmic variables, which have shown an extreme soft-to-hard X-ray flux ratio in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. Aims. We intend to…

The study of fast variability properties in X-ray binaries advances our understanding of the physical processes and geometric properties of the accretion flow around the compact object. In this work, we study the evolution of the timing…

We study variability through simultaneous optical and X-ray observations for the first time in a statistical sample of 256 M dwarfs. Such observations are required to constrain the flare frequency and energetics and to understand the…

The low background, good spatial resolution and great sensitivity of the EPIC-pn camera on XMM-Newton give useful limits for the detection of extended sources even during the short exposures made during slewing maneouvers. In this paper we…

The XMM-Newton Slew Survey (XSS) covers a significant fraction of the sky in a broad X-ray bandpass. Although shallow by contemporary standards, in the `classical' 2-10 keV band of X-ray astronomy, the XSS provides significantly better…

We present the Extragalactic Serendipitous Swift Survey (ExSeSS), providing a new well-defined sample constructed from the observations performed using the Swift X-ray Telescope. The ExSeSS sample consists of 79,342 sources detected in the…

The great collecting area of the mirrors coupled with the high quantum efficiency of the EPIC detectors have made XMM-Newton the most sensitive X-ray observatory flown to date. This is particularly evident during slew exposures which, while…

Observing the ultraviolet (UV) sky for time-variable phenomena is one of the many exciting science goals that can be achieved by a relatively small aperture telescope in space. The Near Ultraviolet Transient Surveyor (NUTS) is a wide-field…

I describe ongoing work on development of Bayesian methods for exploring periodically varying phenomena in astronomy, addressing two classes of sources: pulsars, and extrasolar planets (exoplanets). For pulsars, the methods aim to detect…

We present light curves of a sample of "transient" sources observed with the All-Sky Monitor (ASM) of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The light curves extend over 3.5 years. They are presented in three groups: six neutron-star…

INTEGRAL monitoring of the Galactic Plane is revealing a growing number of recurrent X-ray transients, characterised by short outbursts with very fast rise times (~ tens of minutes) and typical durations of a few hours. A substantial…

With the high sensitivity and wide-field coverage of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), large samples of explosive transients are expected to be discovered. Radio wavelengths, especially in commensal survey mode, are particularly well suited…

The success of the SWIFT/BAT and INTEGRAL missions has definitely opened a new window for follow-up and deep study of the transient gamma-ray sky. This now appears as the access key to important progresses in the area of cosmological…