ASCA Science Highlights: Surveys
Follow the links to images and plots
Some ASCA observations are not of specific objects, but of specific areas of the sky to see what kind of X-ray emitting objects may be found. Although ASCA is not the first instrument used for an X-ray survey by any means, it has extended imaging X-ray surveys to a higher energy range (up to 10 keV) than ever before.- We live in a spiral (perhaps a barred-spiral) galaxy. By observing the Galactic plane, therefore, we can observe a large number of interesting objects that are often obscured by intervening gas and dust. The hard X-ray sensitivity of ASCA (which is less susceptible to interstellar absorption) is one way of getting around this. The ASCA Galactic Plane Survey has uncovered many interesting X-ray sources so far.
- Outside our own Galaxy, ASCA has enabled discoveries of heavily obscured active galaxies such as NGC 6552.
This page created by Dr. Koji Mukai (USRA) at the U.S. ASCA Guest Observer Facility.
This file was last modified on Tuesday, 29-May-2001 11:57:20 EDT
Curator:
HEASARC Guest Observer Facility
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