Celebrating ten years of Integral science

Credits: ESA-C. Carreau This week, ESA's Integral space observatory celebrates ten years since launch on 17 October 2002. To mark the occasion, we present a slideshow of artist's impressions depicting some of Integral's most important discoveries. Integral, short for International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, is equipped with two gamma-ray telescopes, an X-ray monitor and an optical camera. All four of Integral's instruments point simultaneously at the same region of the sky to make complementary observations of high-energy sources. Integral is often bathed in gamma-ray bursts, the death cries of massive stars that have burned up their fuel and exploded as a dramatic supernova, blasting high-energy radiation through the Solar System on a near-daily basis. The satellite has also discovered objects that are much subtler than exploding stars.