Observations of the background component of cosmic X rays

Abstract

The background component of cosmic X rays was observed using collimators of different fields of view. It was found that there existed a component with the counting rate proportional to the field of view. The intensity of the background component was found to be essentially uniform except in the region including the Sco X-1 source and sources in the vicinity of the galactic center. The energy spectrum was nearly flat in the energy range between 4 and 8 keV, and the intensity was 0.45 ± 0.09 photon cm⁻² s⁻¹ keV⁻¹. The shape of the spectrum was checked by comparison with the spectrum of Sco X-1.