New insights on chemical evolution of galaxies: XMM-Newton observations of M82

We report on the ongoing data analysis of a very deep (~100 ks) XMM-Newton observation of the starburst galaxy M82. We show some details of data analysis and a few results from spatially-resolved spectroscopy with the EPIC cameras. Since M82 is a bright object with a complex spectrum, the data reduction of such a deep observation has posed many challenges both about the involved astrophysical processes and the available data analysis techniques. Vertical (with respect to the galaxy plane) abundance gradients are discovered. The hints for an under-abundance of Oxygen stemming from our previous study are confirmed. The hot X-ray emitting gas is shown to have a multi-temperature distribution.