The first X-ray survey of LBVs

Though rare, the stars of the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) class are crucialobjects for understanding the evolution of massive stars. However, there arestill many open questions related to LBVs and this is especially the case fortheir properties in the Xray domain. Indeed, up to now, no Xray survey of theGalactic LBVs has ever been performed. We propose to fill that gap thanks to thesensitive XMMNewton observatory. This Xray campaign is also aimed atcomplementing our GTO (key programme) survey of LBVs with ESA.s forthcomingHerschel observatory. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]