This image shows the distribution of bright, massive young stars (all OB stars in the Bright Star Catalog) in the solar vicinity, plotted in galactic coordinates. Rather than having a flat distribution in the galactic plane, the stars trace the Gould Belt, an expanding, ring- or disk-like star forming structure of some 40-70 million year age and some 800-1000 pc (2600-3300 light years) diameter.

In the course of follow-up studies of ROSAT X-ray sources near Gould Belt star forming regions, we have been able to discover the x-ray active, young, low-mass counterparts to the massive Gould Belt stars shown above. Click on the image to see an animation fading from the distribution of massive, bright stars into that of the x-ray active (mostly low-mass) stars, derived from cross-correlating the ROSAT All-Sky Catalog with the TYCHO catalog.

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