The Diffuse Hot Gas in Face-on Spiral Galaxies

The hot ISM of spiral galaxies is relatively unstudied because previous missions did not have the necessary spatial resolution. Chandra permits such a study by allowing for the removal of point sources to a high degree of fidelity. Chandra's spatial resolution is also a good match to observations at other wavelengths, permitting true multi-wavelength correlations. We report on the progress of four studies of the hot gas: global spectral fits,spatially-resolved spectral energy distributions, searches for supernova remnants, and the influence of star clusters on the hot gas.

The research of EMS was supported by contract NAS8-39073 to SAO to operate Chandra and by Chandra archive grant AR3-4007A.