Weak low-latitude X-ray sources and local galactic structure

Abstract

A LONG-STANDING problem of astronomy has been the elucidation of conditions that prevail in the local solar neighbourhood. Starting with Gould1, work has continued to try to map out the morphology of the Milky Way in the vicinity of the Sun. It was noted a century ago1 that the nearby OB stars were not distributed symmetrically with respect to the galactic plane. We report here some of the interesting contributions that X-ray sources make towards this picture.