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Surprises in the Hard X-ray Sky

Cosmic objects emit throughout the electro-magnetic spectrum, from radio waves to very high-energy gamma rays. Some spectral regions can be observed from the ground, but space instrumentation is needed for most of them. Some spectral regions are particularly difficult, for example hard X-rays and MeV gamma rays. For one thing, in this spectral region photons interact least with matter. Moreover, no focussing optics was available until very recently. INTEGRAL, the gamma ray observatory mission led by ESA, was designed to observe the sky in this very domain.