INTEGRAL Latest News

 

Happy 22nd birthday, INTEGRAL!

17 October 2024 On 17 October 2002 INTEGRAL was launched into space. That means ESA's most sensitive gamma-ray observatory to date is 22 years old and still operating today! Happy Launch Anniversary Day!

We will celebrate this event next week with the INTEGRAL Workshop 2024.

INTEGRAL ramping down in 2025

11 September 2024  The ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) has approved some limited operations of instruments during the first two months of the post-operations phase that starts on 1 January 2025. Science data taken during this period will be immediately public. The TOO-alert tool remains open for highly important TOOs with priority for gravitational wave event follow-ups until 28 February 2025. Science observations will ultimately end on 1 March 2025.

Update to standard PICsIT time resolution

26 January 2024  As of revolution 2662 (2023-07-12) the standard PICsIT time resolution of the spectral timing mode (S8) has been increased to 3.9ms (previously 7.8ms). This increase will improve the science return for bright and short events such as magnetar flares (like the recent one reported by Mereghetti et al., 2023, arXiv: 2312.14645) and GRBs or compact objects. The data will continue to be binned into 8 bins, with the following energy ranges (all in keV): 208–260, 260-312, 312-364, 364-468, 468-572, 572-780, 780,1196 and 1196–2600.

To accommodate this change within the telemetry limits, the PICsIT histogram mode (S7.0/7.1) has been deactivated. The change is transparent to the observers and no change in data reduction procedure is foreseen.

INTEGRAL AO-21 general programme approved

18 January 2024  The INTEGRAL AO-21 General Programme, as recommended by the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) and approved by ESA's Director of Science (Prof. Carole Mundell), has been released and the observers have been informed. The programme can be found here.

Blast from the past: gamma-ray burst strikes Earth from distant exploding star

15 November 2023 An enormous burst of gamma rays, detected by ESA's Integral space telescope, has struck Earth. The blast caused a significant disturbance in our planet's ionosphere. Such disturbances are usually associated with energetic particle events on the Sun but this one was the result of an exploding star almost two billion light-years away. Analysing the effects of the blast could provide information about the mass extinctions in Earth's history. Read more about it here: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Integral/Blast_from_the_past_gamma-ray_burst_strikes_Earth_from_distant_exploding_star

Happy 21st birthday, INTEGRAL!

17 October 2023 On 17 October 2002 INTEGRAL was launched into space! That means ESA's most sensitive gamma-ray observatory to date is 21 years old and still operating today! Happy Launch Anniversary Day!

Furthermore, the final call for proposals for INTEGRAL concluded successfully on September 29th. Details can be found in the dedicated newsletter.

INTEGRAL's final call for Guest Observing time, AO-21, is open

4 September 2023 Today, the ESA Director of Science (Prof. Carole Mundell) released the 21st Announcement of Opportunity (AO-21) for observing proposals with INTEGRAL.

This announcement solicits proposals for observations to be carried out from January 2024. Proposers from all over the world are welcome to participate. All proposals will be subject to an independent peer review by the INTEGRAL Time Allocation Committee (TAC). The deadline for proposal submission is Friday 29 September 2023, 14:00 CEST.

This is the last AO for INTEGRAL and therefore the last chance to benefit from this special observatory and its unique capabilities. New INTEGRAL proposers are welcome, and some information especially targeting newcomers can be found in this 7-page brochure INTEGRAL's final AO: Capabilities and Science Highlights.

More information can be found on the AO-21 page.

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