Proposal Details - 0920021
Deep Galactic Anticentre Survey: an INTEGRAL must (Ubertini)

Proposal Abstract

One of the key investigations so far performed by the INTEGRAL Observatory, has been the soft gamma-ray GCDE and the GPS, successfully exploited to a depth of better than 1 mCrab in the central region, with unprecedented details due to the >20 Ms exposure on Sgr A*. The basic outcome is a new view of the gamma-ray domain (E>20 keV) confirmed by the discovery, to date, of about 1000 sources belonging to all the galactic and extra-galactic classes. More recently, the new INTEGRAL view of the extra-galactic soft gamma-ray sky has been complemented by the excellent sky coverage provided by the SWIFT/BAT extra-galactic survey. INTEGRAL has still a factor of 10 better sensitivity over the Galaxy plane, due to the 6 Ms average exposure. This is true for the whole plane except for two important regions that are only covered at a level of ~2.2 Ms and ~1.9 Ms by the end of AO8: the outer Perseus spiral arms. In those regions the material is considerably less dense, and one will be able to extend the present studies of compact objects through a detailed comparison of the relative populations of all classes of gamma-ray emitting galactic types in the very different environment provided in these outer regions. Finally, last but not least, this is a unique opportunity to obtain a deep soft gamma ray coverage of the Galaxy plane: an invaluable INTEGRAL legacy for future high-energy studies. This proposal is specifically designed to reach this goal, thus making a corner stone in the high-energy understanding of our Galaxy behaviour in the 17-600 keV range and provide a text book for future population studies. This is a strategic goal in view of the lack of any high-energy mission planned in the next decade and it has been identified as a long-term legacy in the INTEGRAL extension science case 2010. To achieve this goal one of the two weakly exposed regions will be observed in AO9: the region at l=150 degrees.

Observation Strategy (Recommended by TAC)

Total of 2 Ms performed as a 10 x 5 grid (10 steps in galactic longitude and 5 steps in galactic latitude) centred on (l, b) = (150, 0) using the standard 2.17 step size between dither points and an exposure time of 2 ks per pointing.

Proposal grade: B

Data Rights (Recommended by TAC)

The TAC granted data rights for previously unknown faint sources

Exposure Map

The exposure maps are in galactic coordinates using the Aitoff projection and units of seconds, and the colour scale is indicated at the bottom. The green lines provide the 100, 300 and 500 ksec contour.