INTEGRAL Latest News AO7 Programme subscription target allocations
27 October 2009 ISOC has prepared the final list of sources approved by the AO7 TAC from the Data Rights proposals to the accepted Open Time proposals. The list, ordered by right ascension as well as by principal investigator, can be found on the Target Lists page for AO-7. There you will also find links to the approved target pointings for AO7 as well as descriptions of the associated Open Time proposals. 
AO7
16 October 2009 AO7 officially began today on Oct. 16 during revolution 856 (but AO7 observation of NGC 2110 and then the Mkn 509 observations coordinated with XMM-Newton were already started in 854 and 855). In revolution 856, both monitors of JEM-X will be operating, with a very low telemetry for JEM-X1 (put in a safe/dormant mode) to prepare the final switch from JEM-X1 to JEM-X2: from revolution 856 onwards, JEM-X2 will be the main instrument. Besides, the 14th SPI annealing is planned to last for 6 revolutions and will be done during revolutions 857 until 862. During that time, the SPI instrument will not deliver science data (except during revolution 862). Finally, for more information on the AO7 target fields as well as the accepted sources within the fields, we refer to the approved AO7 target lists and short and long-term planning usual webpages. 
Winners of the INTEGRAL competition 08 October 2009 An INTEGRAL competition was run as part of the 'International Year of Astronomy, 100 Hours of Astronomy' cornerstone project, in which people around the world were given access to leading astronomical observatories. To celebrate this International Year of Astronomy, ESA organised a competition in which students were presented with data from INTEGRAL and asked to study the Galactic bulge, one of the most active regions at the heart of our Galaxy. Entrants were required to perform research tasks using data of variable X-ray sources. The tasks included interpreting the data, searching for evidence of variability and then writing a report on their research. The competition entries were judged by an expert panel comprising ESA scientists. Students from India and South Africa have been selected as the winners of the 'Be an INTEGRAL astronomer' competition. For more details, click here.
AO-7 Data Right Proposals approved
30 September 2009 The ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration (Prof. David Southwood) has approved the recommendation of the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) for proposals to obtain data rights to targets within AO-7 observations. The proposers have been informed about the TAC decision and about the detailed data rights obtained. An overview of successful proposals can be found here. An overview of the distributed sources and data right holders is being prepared.
High energy observations of the newly discovered burster millisecond pulsar IGR J17511-3057
18 September 2009 The transient source IGR J17511-3057 was discovered during INTEGRAL observations of the Galactic Bulge monitoring program (see ATel #2196). Subsequent observations of the Galactic Bulge and Center region allow to follow the transient's outburst in hard X-rays (see light curve below). A deeper insight into the source properties will be obtained during the TOO observations of the system in revolution 846 (16-19 Sep).
INTEGRAL is not the only satellite observing the outburst of IGR J17511-3057. The transient is being observed by many of the X-ray/gamma-ray observatories currently in operation. The overview below is based on available short-term scheduling, and may not be necessarily complete. For details of the INTEGRAL observations see the INTEGRAL Scheduling pages.
|
