The H.E.S.S. survey of the inner Galactic plane

Abstract

The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), located in the Khomas Highlands of Namibia, is an array of four imaging atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes designed to detect gamma-rays in the very high energy (VHE; > 100 GeV) domain. Its high sensitivity and large field-of-view (5 deg) make it an ideal instrument to perform a survey within the Galactic plane for new VHE sources. Previous observations in 2004/2005 resulted in numerous detections of VHE gamma-ray emitters in the region l = 330 deg - 30 deg Galactic longitude. Recently the survey was extended, covering the regions l = 280 deg - 330 deg and l = 30 deg - 60 deg, leading to the discovery of several previously unknown sources with high statistical significance. The current status of the survey will be presented.