RESUMO
The solar neighbourhood is the closest and most easily studied sample of the Galactic interstellar medium, an understanding of which is essential for models of star formation and galaxy evolution. Observations of an unexpectedly intense diffuse flux of easily absorbed 1/4-kiloelectronvolt X-rays, coupled with the discovery that interstellar space within about a hundred parsecs of the Sun is almost completely devoid of cool absorbing gas, led to a picture of a 'local cavity' filled with X-ray-emitting hot gas, dubbed the local hot bubble. This model was recently challenged by suggestions that the emission could instead be readily produced within the Solar System by heavy solar-wind ions exchanging electrons with neutral H and He in interplanetary space, potentially removing the major piece of evidence for the local existence of million-degree gas within the Galactic disk. Here we report observations showing that the total solar-wind charge-exchange contribution is approximately 40 per cent of the 1/4-keV flux in the Galactic plane. The fact that the measured flux is not dominated by charge exchange supports the notion of a million-degree hot bubble extending about a hundred parsecs from the Sun.
RESUMO
The x-ray source GX 5-1 in the galactic bulge has been observed with the position-sensitive proportional counter onboard the Röntgen satellite (ROSAT) during and after a lunar occultation. Extended emission around the source was unambiguously discovered while the central source was behind the lunar rim. This emission is interpreted as a dust-scattering halo around GX 5-1 that has a fractional intensity of 28 percent, implying a grain column density between GX 5-1 and Earth of approximately 3 x 10(10) per square centimeter. The halo derived from imaging during the ROSAT all-sky survey is identical to that obtained from the lunar occultation, thus demonstrating that the ROSAT x-ray mirror scattering has not changed as compared with the mirror properties as measured in preflight calibrations.
RESUMO
The detection by the Roentgen satellite (ROSAT) x-ray telescope of a shadow in the 1/4-kiloelectron volt (C band, 0.1 to 0.284 kiloelectron volt) cosmic diffuse background is reported. The location and morphology of the local minimum in x-rays are in clear agreement with a discrete H I cloud. The shadow is very deep with a minimum level at 50 percent of the surrounding emission; therefore, a minimum of 50 percent of the observed off-cloud flux must originate on the far side of the cloud. The analysis of H I velocity components links the cloud with the Draco nebula (distance approximately 600 parsecs); it then follows that there is significant 1/4-kiloelectron volt x-ray emission at a large distance (>400 parsecs) from the galactic plane along this line of sight. The extent of the distant emission region is uncertain, and, if it indicates the existence of a hot galactic corona, it must be patchy in nature.
