Aug 31 2001
From The Space Library
Scientists led by Ken Ebisawa of NASA’s GSFC published research that helped resolve a long-standing question about whether the emission of x-rays from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy was truly diffuse or derived from numerous discrete sources. The scientists had used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to carry out an unprecedented survey of a region of the galactic plane that had no known x-ray point sources, in the deepest examination ever made of hard x-rays in the region referred to as the zone of avoidance. Chandra had revealed 36 new x-ray point sources and an area of diffuse emission. Properties of the new point sources had indicated that they were probably located outside the Milky Way. In addition, Chandra’s survey had indicated that the diffuse x-ray emission revealed the galactic omnipresence of hot plasma with a higher energy density than any other substance in interstellar space. (NASA, “Astronomers Go Behind the Milky Way To Solve X-ray Mystery,” news release 01-161, 9 August 2001; Ken Ebisawa et al., “Origin of the Hard X-ray Emission from the Galactic Plane,” Science 293, no. 5535 (31 August 2001): 1633–1635.)
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