Description
We report on the first X-ray images of the Phoenix dwarf galaxy, taken with XMM-Newton in 2009 July. This Local Group dwarf galaxy shares similarities with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) including a burst of star formation ~50Myr ago. The SMC has an abundance of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) and so we have investigated the possibility of an HMXB population in Phoenix with the intention of furthering the understanding of the HMXB-star formation rate relation. The data from the combined European Photon Imaging Cameras (EPIC) were used to distinguish between different source classes [foreground stars, background galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN) and supernova remnants] using EPIC hardness ratios and correlations with optical and radio catalogues.
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