Abstract
We present XMM-Newton observations of NGC891, a nearby edge-on spiral galaxy. We analyse the extent of the diffuse emission emitted from the disk of the galaxy, and find that it has a single temperature profile with best fitting temperature of 0.26 keV, though the fit of a dual-temperature plasma with temperatures of 0.08 and 0.30 keV is also an acceptable fit. There is a considerable amount of diffuse X-ray emission protruding from the disk in the NW direction out to approximately 6 kpc. We analyse the point source population using a Chandra observation, using a maximum likelihood method to find that the slope of the cumulative luminosity function of point sources in the galaxy is 0.77 +0.13 0.1 . Using a sample of other local galaxies, we compare the X-ray and infrared properties of NGC891 with those of ’normal’ and starburst spiral galaxies, and conclude that NGC891 is most likely a starburst galaxy in a quiescent state. We establish that the diffuse X-ray luminosity of spirals scales with the far infrared luminosity as LX / L 0.87±0.07 F IR , except for extreme starbursts, and NGC891 does not fall in the latter category. We study the supernova SN1986J in both XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, and find that the X-ray luminosity has been declining with time more steeply than expected (LX / t 3 ).
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