WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (States News Service) -- On Wednesday, the same day Japan is to launch its own X-ray telescope, Astro E, the European Space Agency's X-Ray Multi-Mirror Newton mission was pronounced ready for action.

"The instrument checked out beautifully," said Columbia University professor Steve Kahn, who worked with scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to make instruments for the observatory. "The resolution is even higher than we were expecting."

Early X-ray images from the XMM-Newton, which was launched in December, include part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own, other distant galaxies and a snapshot of a nearby star named HR 1099.

The results from the European Space Agency satellite -- the agency's largest-ever scientific telescope -- were presented at the XMM-Newton Science Operations Center in Villafranca, Spain.

A false color X-ray image of the field around star HR1099. (Credit: ESA)

XMM-Newton joins a league of recent high-power X-ray satellites, each with distinct characteristics. Though XMM's resolution is not as sharp as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that NASA launched last summer, the many-mirrored European telescope collects more X-rays because it is larger in size.

Japan's Astro E, due to launch Wednesday night after delays, is smaller than both other satellites, but measures high energy X-rays very well with its ultra-cold high-tech spectrometer that can detect minute amounts of heat energy.

ESA said official scientific observations would begin by mid- to late March. Results are expected to start streaming in by early April.