Credit: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
Encircling the Pole
An image of the entire sky was made by the ROSAT X-ray telescope in the
early 1990's during its "all sky survey" phase. The exposure of the image
varied from place to place, but because ROSAT's orbit was perpendicular to
the ecliptic plane (the plane of earth's orbit around the sun), the sky
above the north and south ecliptic poles was observed every orbit. This
produced an extraordinarily deep image of these regions of the sky. The image above
shows the ROSAT all-sky survey image of the sky above the south pole.
Various observing strips, representing individual orbits of ROSAT, all
intersect above the south ecliptic pole.
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F.
Corcoran
Last modified April 2, 2001
