After 17 years of operation in space, the high-energy scientific satellite AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero) re-entered into the atmosphere.
AGILE, built by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with contributions by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italian universities and companies such as OHB Italia, Thales Alenia Space, Rheinmetall and Telespazio, has been a unique and hugely successful space programme in the landscape of the Italian space activities, being tasked to hunt cosmic sources, among the most energetic sources of the Universe emitting Gamma rays and X-rays.
During more than 87,200 orbits around the Earth, AGILE monitored the sky, observing a large variety of galactic and extra-galactic gamma-ray sources, highlighting their very fast changes, frequent episodes of gamma ray and X-ray emissions from neutron stars, supernova remnants and black holes. Data from these observations were received on ground by ASI Luigi Broglio Space Centre in Malindi, Kenya. Then, data was transmitted to the Telespazio control centre and finally to the ASI Space Science Data Centre (SSDC) in Rome, which is responsible for all scientific operations.
The major discoveries of the satellite include the first detection of galactic cosmic ray sources in Supernova remnants. Moreover, the satellite has provided a very detailed mapping of the entire Galaxy and investigated hundreds of galactic and extra-galactic sources. These discoveries have led to a wide-ranging scientific output consisting of more than 800 bibliographic references, including more than 160 refereed articles and 12 mission catalogues published through January 2024.
President of ASI, Teodoro Valente, said this mission was “record-breaking” not only for the duration of almost 17 years in orbit, but also for the important scientific results obtained and the data interpretation work done by the Italian scientific community.
“With AGILE re-entering into the atmosphere, the operational phase in orbit comes to an end, but another phase of intense work on the huge data archive starts, which may still hold surprises. Those who were so lucky as to “dialogue” with AGILE over the years, have always considered it a sort of space “friend”, always ready, always alert, always capable of probing the Universe”, added Marco Tavani, President of INAF.
“AGILE has been a really successful mission, a small satellite that has done great science”, concluded Antonio Zoccoli, President of INFN. The National Institute for Nuclear Physics has greatly contributed to this project with the silicon-tungsten tracker of the Gamma Ray Imaging Detector, the heart of the main detector of AGILE.
This experience has demonstrated that collaboration between particle physics and high-energy astrophysics is very productive and leads to great results.
