The Chandra Multiwavelength Project:Galactic Plane Survey Chandra X-ray Observatory National Optical Astronomy Observatory



The ChaMPlane survey is being conducted at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Chandra Survey

The remarkable resolution (~< 1 arcsec), sensitivity (~> 10X deeper than ROSAT), energy range (0.1 - 10 keV) of Chandra will allow a unique survey of the Galaxy to be conducted by analysis of serendipitous sources in deep Chandra galactic fields. Such a survey would greatly extend the limited Einstein Galactic Plane Survey (Hertz and Grindlay, 1984, ApJ, 278, 137 (HG84)) and the recently released, but confusion-limited (in galactic plane), ROSAT all sky survey (cf. Voges et al, IAUC 7432) by orders of magnitude in both sensitivity and ready identifications. As the premier high resolution X-ray imager for at least the next decade, it is timely to plan for analysis of the (many) Chandra galactic fields now to begin the creation of this legacy database and statistical understanding of the accreting binary (white dwarf, neutron star and black hole) as well as stellar coronal x-ray content of the Galaxy.