X-ray map from the EXOSAT galactic plane survey and a direct demodulation technique.

Abstract

In 1984 the EXOSAT observatory scanned the galactic plane with its medium-energy array which had a spatial resolution of about 0.75deg. The data analysis used at that time was unable to resolve some of the more complex regions near the galactic centre. The direct demodulation method is a technique to solve the image reconstruction problem in high energy astrophysics with a high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Using this method we have reanalyzed the data and obtained new images of the galactic plane X-ray emission. Three images of parts of this observation given in this paper show a number of point sources which were unresolved in the previous analysis.