Gamma-ray Astrophysics with The AGILE Mission

AGILE is an ASI space Mission dedicated to X-ray/gamma-ray astrophysics. The AGILE instrument is very compact and designed to simultaneously detect and image photons in the 30 MeV - 50 GeV and 18 - 60 keV energy bands with excellent imaging and sub-millisecond timing capabilities, and a large field of view covering 1/5 of the entire sky at energies above 30 MeV. A CsI calorimeter is also capable of independently detect GRBs in the energy band 0.35-50 MeV with millisecond triggering capabilities.

A review of the main scientific results obtained by the AGILE Mission during the period July 2007 - December 2008 will be given with emphasis on the major discoveries: a class of variable gamma-ray sources in the Galactic plane, the study of SNRs and the origin of cosmic rays, an exploration of the blazar population and the detection of persistent and variable emission from 3C 454.3, GRBs with and without gamma-ray emission, millisecond GRBs.