Identification and Analyses in Optical Light of Gamma-Ray Sources with Astronomical Archival Plates

Abstract

The ESA INTEGRAL satellite (International Gamma Ray Laboratory) launched in October 2002 continues to deliver valuable data about the gamma-ray sky. Nearly 450 gamma-ray sources have been detected so far mainly by the IBIS onboard instrument, and others are expected in the future. The first 3.5 years of INTEGRAL public and Core Program data have revealed more than 400 sources and this number is expected to increase to more than 500 in the future (Bird et al. 2007). Alternative method to identify and to analyze INTEGRAL gamma-ray sources using optical light and astronomical archival plates is described, together with additional results from analyses of high-energy sources in these databases.