NEAR IR SURFACE BRIGHTNESS OF SOUTHERN GALACTIC PLANE

NEAR IR surface of the Galaxy has been observed in balloon experiments 1-6. The stellar distribution in the inner Galaxy thus obtained is related to the distributions of HI clouds, CO clouds, γ rays, OH-IR sources and so on7. These observations were restricted to the northern sky, and we have recently attempted to use balloon observations from Australia to study the overall structure of the Galaxy more completely. We found that (1) humps for 2.4-m surface brightness are asymmetric with respect to the galactic centre and attributed to the spiral structure; (2) the 2.4-m galactic plane is distorted from the flat plane in the regions around the most pronounced humps; (3) IR sources are highly concentrated in the plane to compensate interstellar absorption; and (4) the central region shows a complex structure. © 1979 Nature Publishing Group.