The Galactic bulge through INTEGRAL’s eyes and beyond
Date: 17 Oct 2012
Copyright: ESA/INTEGRAL/JEM-X/IBIS/Optical image: ESO & S. Brunier
Credits: ESA – C. Carreau & E. Kuulkers
The central region of our Milky Way, the Galactic bulge, is a rich host of variable high-energy X-ray and gamma-ray sources.
The video looks inside the central part of our Galaxy to reveal these dynamic sources, which include X-ray binary systems with either a black hole or a neutron star, pulsars and remnants of supernova explosions.
Superimposed on an optical image of the Galactic bulge are the sources of high-energy radiation detected by INTEGRAL. The video presents observations made between February 2005 and October 2011.
A number of these sources only shine brightly for a limited period of time – in some cases, they appear as a sudden bright flash and disappear shortly afterwards, whereas others are more persistent. The effect of this constantly changing environment gives the Galactic bulge the appearance of a dramatic cosmic light show.
The first part of the video combines data gathered with JEM-X at soft X-ray energies (between 3 and 25 keV; represented in red, orange and yellow) and with IBIS/ISGRI at hard X-ray energies (between 18 and 100 keV; represented in blue, purple and white).
Zooming back out of the Milky Way shows a bird's eye view of the gamma and hard X-ray sources in our Milky Way detected by INTEGRAL.
The video concludes with a stunning fly-through of the central part of the Galactic bulge before returning to our Solar System and the orbit of INTEGRAL around Earth.
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Last Update: 2 Nov 2012
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