The Extreme Sky - Seven Years of INTEGRAL

TL;DR

Over seven years, INTEGRAL has provided high-resolution images and spectra in the 10-8000 keV range, leading to new discoveries in high-energy astrophysics and establishing itself as a key survey instrument.

Contribution

This paper summarizes seven years of INTEGRAL observations, highlighting new discoveries and the mission's impact on high-energy astrophysics research.

Findings

Detection of X-ray emission from embedded binaries

Observation of hard emission tails from AXPs

Identification of 60Fe radioactivity lines

Abstract

Seven years of successful observations of the sky have been completed within the INTEGRAL mission, in the transition regime between X-rays and gamma-rays from ~10-8000 keV. Initially-agreed mission goals have been pursued, and both high-resolution images of point sources and high-resolution spectra of nuclear lines have been obtained. New discoveries have been made, such as X-ray emission from embedded binaries, hard emission tails from AXPs and 60Fe radioactivity lines; these stimulated both theoretical and observational studies, and now make INTEGRAL a valuable asset for the astronomical survey of high-energy sources across the sky. This contribution summarizes the situation after seven years of the mission, and concludes the 7-year anniversary workshop "The extreme sky" held in Otranto, Italy, in Oct 2009.