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K.D. Kuntz (UMBC/GSFC-LHEA JCA), S.L. Snowden (USRA/GSFC-LHEA), W.D. Pence (GSFC-LHEA), K. Mukai (USRA/GSFC-LHEA)
Although somewhat larger than the Milky Way, M101 is the closest face-on Milky Way analogue. As such, it serves as a useful laboratory for studying the overall X-ray emission from galaxies like our own.
We present here a first study of the diffuse X-ray emission in M101, using a deep (98ks) Chandra exposure on the S3 chip. Despite some expectations, the 3/4 keV emission is not primarily due to unresolved point sources. The diffuse emission is correlated with the spiral arms, and the radial profile of the X-ray emission is similar to the radial profile of the optical emission. We will also present spectroscopic analyses of selected regions of diffuse emission.