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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2011
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⊙ instead of several × 106 M⊙; 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.