images

Satellite COS-B

by

ESA/Novapix

Reference

e-sou15-50001

Date

2006-11-16

Cos-B was the first ESA mission dedicated to the study of gamma-ray sources. Its results created a catalogue of these sources, known as the 2CG Catalogue, the first complete map of the gamma-ray emission from the disc of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the first detectable emission from an extra-galactic object 3C273.Launched on the 9 August 1975, COS-B was originally projected to last two years, but it operated successfully for 6 years and 8 months. It provided the first complete map of the Galaxy in gamma-rays.