X-ray Spectrometry of SN1987A

From a 100 ks XMMNewton observation of SN 1987A performed in Jan. 2007 (AO5) weobtained EPIC and RGS spectra of unprecedented quality. The soft Xray lightcurve shows a significant flattening since the beginning of 2006. To monitorthis turnover we propose to continue our yearly XMMNewton observations of SN1987A. Together with our accepted AO6 observation this will allow us to studythe time evolution of the shock conditions and abundance profiles of, e.g., N,O, Fe, Ne (with RGS). At high energies EPICpn can help to clarify the extremelylow Fe abundance observed so far. Is the Fe completely swallowed by the centralcompact object or is the emission from the inner sections of the progenitor starstill absorbed? truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]