Abstract
Although searches so far have been restricted to a few small rockets and balloons, some 40 discrete x-ray sources have already been resolved against a diffuse, nearly isotropic background radiation. The strongest source is about 2000 times as bright as the weakest detectable with present rocket instruments. Nearly all of the discrete sources lie close to the galactic plane and most likely are members of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. One x-ray source at high galactic latitude is identifiable with a distant radio galaxy, Virgo A, and its x-ray luminosity is 70 times its radio power. The diffuse background radiation seems to be resolvable into at least two components: one may be associated with the interaction of cosmic rays and the microwave photons of the cosmological 3 K background; the other with bremsstrahlung from hot, intergalactic gas.
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