Grand Central Scan
Mysterious beasts lurk at the center of the Milky Way. They require new and varied methods to be monitored - no one knows when they will act up. A new observatory run by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana called AGILE is one new tool in the astronomer's toolbox. AGILE (Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero, which roughly translates as "Star imaging detector in Gamma-Ray Light") was launched on April 23, 2007 and is already returning important science during its check-out phase.
The image above is a scan by the X-ray monitor on AGILE, called Super-AGILE (which roughly translates as "Above-AGILE"), dedicated to monitoring hard X-ray sources with high sensitivity. This scan, performed shortly after the launch of AGILE, identifies more than a dozen high energy sources (in the range 20-60 keV) in the Galactic center.
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Each week the HEASARC
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Friday, 20-Apr-2012 15:25:29 EDT