The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThe central region of our Milky Way, the Galactic Bulge, is a rich host of variable high-energy X-ray and gamma-ray sources.
After a short introduction illustrating Integral’s place in ESA’s fleet of astronomy and astrophysics satellites, the movie looks inside the central bulge 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.
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.
Zooming back out of the Milky Way shows a bird’s eye view of the known gamma and hard X-ray sources in our Milky Way.
The movie 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.
Credits: ESA–C. Carreau & E. Kuulkers