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Picture of the MonthJanuary 2005
INTEGRAL insights to the inner parts of the GalaxyINTEGRAL has devoted a large fraction of the available observation time to the Galactic center region resulting in some new insights on the inner Galaxy arms (Norma, Scutum, Sagittarius). In a paper submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics Lutovinov et al. discuss the density of High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXB) towards the Galactic centre. Since INTEGRAL observes in the hard X-ray band it has an increased sensitivity to absorbed sources, resulting in a larger sample of HMXB's. In the figure the density of HMXB's is represented by a grey scale and the spiral arms are indicated. The star denotes the position of the Galactic centre, the circle with the dot the position of the sun. The highest density ("dark grey") is found in the general direction of the Norma arm. However the maxima in the HMXB density do not coincide exactly with the current position of the spiral arms. Lutovinov et al. argue that the highest density of HMXB is found where star formation was taking place about 10 million years ago. Credits: A. Lutovinov (IKI Moscow) et al.
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