Integral’s hard-X-ray map of bright AGNs

This Integral map (celestial sphere in galactic coordinates) shows the space density of hard X-ray bright Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) in different directions of the sky.

As expected, the distribution of nearby AGNs is indeed strongly anisotropic, meaning that AGNs have non-uniform spatial distribution. For comparison, the green contours show a usual tracer of mass concentrations in the local Universe - the surface density of galaxies identified in the 'IRAS point source catalogue red-shift survey' at distances smaller than 70 megaparsecs, or about 230 million light years.

The large-scale feature in the north-east direction is consistent with the projected position of the highest mass concentrations in the local Universe - the Virgo cluster and the Great Attractor. The south-western structure is consistent with the position of the Perseus-Pisces supercluster.