干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

XMM-Newton was launched in December 1999 and science operations started in March 2000. Following two Years of very successful operations, a report, on the instrument performance and a selection of exciting new results are presented. Behind two of the three telescopes of XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometers (RGS) are placed. Each spectrometer consists of an array of reflection gratings and a set of back illuminated CCDs. They cover the wavelength band between 6 and 38 Angstrom with a resolution varying between 100 and 600 (E/DeltaE) and a maximum effective area of 140 cm(2) for the two spectrometers combined. The selected wavelength band covers the K-shell transitions of C, N, O, Ne, Mg and Si as well as the L- and M-shell transitions of Fe. After a short introduction to the instrument design, the in-orbit performance is given. This includes the line spread function, the wavelength scale arid the effective area including their stability during the more than 2 Years of operations. Following this a number of key scientific results are briefly addressed, illustrating the power of the RGS instrument in combination with the other instruments on-board of XXM-Newton as well as the wealth of information which is obtained as the RGS instruments operate continuously.