Chandra Observations of Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Abstract

Chandra is revolutionising our understanding of the X-ray emission from spiral galaxies. Before Chandra, detailed extragalactic studies were limited to Local Group galaxies. We are now able to obtain detailed inventories of sources in galaxies outside the Local Group, allowing population studies for the first time. In this review I will first discuss some intriguing observations of globular cluster sources in M31, then move outside the Local Group and summarise the observational properties of sources in several spiral galaxies (both bulge dominated and disk dominated). The X-ray colors and variability characteristics suggest that most of these sources are accreting binaries. High mass X-ray binaries are formed preferentially in disk galaxies. Finally, I show that the luminosity functions of spiral galaxies can be qualitatively understood in terms of simple population models.