The first broad-band X-ray images and spectra of the 30 Doradus region in the LMC*

We present the XMM-Newtonfirst light image, taken in January 2000 with the EPIC pn camera during the instrument's commissioning phase, when XMM-Newtonwas pointing towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The field is rich in different kinds of X-ray sources: point sources, supernova remnants (SNRs) and diffuse X-ray emission from LMCinterstellar gas. The observations are of unprecedented sensitivity, reaching a few 10$\sp{32}$erg/s for point sources in the LMC. We describe how these data sets were analysed and discuss some of the spectroscopic results. For the SNR N157Bthe power law spectrum is clearly steeper than previously determined from ROSAT and ASCA data. The existence of a significant thermal component is evident and suggests that N157Bis not a Crab-like but a composite SNR. Most puzzling is the spectrum of the LMChot interstellar medium, which indicates a significant overabundance of Ne and Mg of a few times solar.