An X-ray view of Pictor A radio lobes: a spatially resolved study

A spatially resolved analysis of the lobes of the radio galaxy Pictor A has been performed for the first time starting from a 50 ksec XMM-Newton observation. Magnetic field, B_{IC}, particle density, particle to magnetic field energy density ratios have been measured. Our study shows that B_{IC} varies through the lobes. On the contrary, a rather uniform distribution of the particles is observed. In both the lobes, the equipartition magnetic field, B_{eq}, is bigger than the Inverse Compton value, B_{IC}, calculated from the radio to X-ray flux ratio.