GRS 1915+105 ``celebrates its majority'' (1992-2010)

Over the 18 years since its discovery, GRS 1915+105 has continuously brightened in the X/γ-ray sky. It is considered the prototypical microquasar. Most of these are LMXBs that show sporadic ejection of matter at apparently superluminal velocities. In these the three basic ingredients of quasars are found: a black hole, an accretion disc and collimated jets of high energy particles, but in microquasars the black hole is only a few M_solar instead of several × 10⁶ M_solar the accretion disc had mean thermal temperature of several × 10⁶ K instead of several × 10³ K, and the particles ejected at relativistic speeds travel distances of a few ly only, compared to few × 10⁶ ly as in radio galaxies. However many open issues remain to be addressed.