A New View of the Galactic Plane with EXOSAT
Warwick, R. S.; Watson, M. G.; Turner, M. J. L.; Willingale, R.
United Kingdom
Abstract
A new X-ray image of the galactic plane has been produced using the 45 arcmin square field of view of the Medium Energy Instrument on EXOSAT. This image shows a total of 64 sources including 18 new ones which include the first observation of persistent emission from the globular cluster bursters Terzan 1 and Terzan 5. The most important discovery from this image is a 2° wide ridge of diffuse emission symmetrical about the plane and extending from the galactic centre to 1″=±40°. The spectrum of this emission appears to be hard (α ∼ 1.2) with no significant absorption.