AGILE

Mission status operativa
AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero) è una missione dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) per lo studio dell’Universo alle alte energie.

In dettaglio

AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini Leggero) is a mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for the study of the Universe at high energies with the participation of INAF, INFN, the italian universities and the national space industry. The AGILE satellite is composed of four detectors: the Gamma Ray Imager Detector (GRID) with a silicon tracker sensitive to 30 MeV - 30 GeV gamma energies, a coded mask detector for hard X-rays (Super-AGILE) sensitive to 18-60 keV energies, a system of cesium iodide scintillating bars (Mini-calorimeter), sensitive to 0.4-200 MeV energies and a system of plastic scintillators to eliminate the external background of particles (Anticoincidence). AGILE, in orbit since 2007, is providing important scientific results: discovery of transient gamma emission in the Crab Nebula and new particle acceleration mechanism; evidence of acceleration of cosmic rays in the Supernovae; transient emission from micro-quasars; observation of blazars, pulsars and galactic sources with contributions to FRB science. It is also an excellent tool for monitoring solar activity and for observing the Earth, revealing hundreds of Terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs)  per month. The continuous coverage of the sky with AGILE provides a fundamental contribution to the search for electromagnetic counterparts of GW and neutrinos.