INTEGRAL The international gamma ray astrophysics laboratory

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INTEGRALThe international gamma ray astrophysics
laboratory
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INTEGRAL is ESAs next gamma-ray astronomy
mission.INTEGRALs mission will begin on 17
October 2002 at around 10 am local time when a
Russian Proton rocket will lift the satellite
into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the
Republic of Kazakhstan.
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Integral payload

• Two gamma-ray instrument
• The spectrometer SPI (code mask)
• Imager IBIS (code mask)
• Two monitor instruments
• The X-ray Monitor Jem-X (code mask)
• The Optical Monitor Camera OMC.

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The Spectrometer SPI
Spectrometer on INTEGRAL
It will be used to analyse gamma-ray sources
over an energy range between 20KeV and 8MeV. The
spectrometer is made of 19 hexagonal
high-purity germanium detectors. A cooling system
will allow the spectrometer to reach a
temperature of 85 Kelvin. The coded mask made of
3 cm thick tungsten, will be composed of 127
hexagonal elements (63 opaque and 64 transparent
elements). It will be placed 1.7 meter above.
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The Imager IBIS
Imager on Board the Integral Satellite.

• will give sharper images than any previous gamma
• ray instrument.
• Will locate sources to within a precision of 30
  arc seconds
• works in the energy range of 15KeV to 10MeV.
• Coded mask made of tungsten. It is placed 3,2m
  above it. The detector uses two layers of
  sensitive picture elements (pixels).
• The results from the two layers allows the paths
  of
• the gamma ray to be tracked in 3D.

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The X-ray monitor, Jem-X
The Joint European X-Ray Monitor
There are two identical X-ray monitor, Jem-X
which complement the two previous instrument and
which will play a decisive role in the detection
and identification of gamma-ray sources. Code
mask placed 3,4 m above the detector
planes. Both masks are identical except for the
180 grades rotation of the code.
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The Optical Monitor , OMC
The Optical Monitor
It make automatically simultaneous observation
of visible light coming from the gamma-ray and
X-ray sources.
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Integral will study some of the most extreme
object of the Universe such as

• neutron stars
• black holes
• gamma ray bursts (the most energetic explosions
  known)-
• Integral observation of gamma-rays will provide a
  direct method of studying the formation of the
  elements.

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Neutron star

• Extremely compact object.
• It is only the size of a city, but may contains
  as much material as the Sun.
• Some of them have incredibly strong magnetic
  field. As they spin they emit strong radio pulse
  known as pulsars.

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Black holes

• Neutron stars containing more that about three
  times the Suns mass become unstable and collapse
  becoming a black hole.
• Nothing, not even light can escape from inside
  the back hole.
• The present of a black hole can only be inferred
  by its effect on any surrounding objects.

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Gamma-ray bursts

• If our eyes could detect Gamma-ray, we would be
  surprised to observe flares in the sky
  occasionally, each perhaps lasting as long a
  minute or so.
• In the 1960s, the US Defence Department launched
  a series of satellites to spot any secret nuclear
  weapons tests in space by the USSR.
• Instead the satellite discover gamma ray burst
  from random direction in the space.

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Compton Gamma-ray Observatory (CGR)

• Four Instruments
• Batse
• Osse
• Compte
• Egret
• The observatory detected burst at a rate of about
  one per day from random directions.
• For many years astronomers had not idea how far
  away these explosion were.
• The problem was to pinpoint a gamma ray burst to
  identify its precise source.
• The problem was solve by

The satellite Beppo-SAX (1996)
It could both, detect GRB and pinpoint the
location of the source within a few arc minutes.
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The large field of view of the INTEGRAL gamma-ray
instrument will allow the chance detection of a
few gamma-ray burst per month, a similar rate to
that provided by Beppo SAX.
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Conclusion
In a few days Integral will detect gamma
radiation from space with unprecedented
sensitivity. Simultaneously it will observed at
X-ray and optical wavelengths.
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Integral Instrument performance Summary
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO)
BeppoSAX
Sourse of location lt 5 arcmin