EUV mapping of the local interstellar medium: the Local Chimney revealed?

We discuss the galactic distribution of 450 sources detected by the EUVE sa tellite that have reliable distance estimates. Late-type stars dominate the nearby EUV source distribution, whereas the majority of EUV source detecti ons with distances > 100pc are hot white dwarf stars. The galactic distribu tion of all these sources is non-uniform with number enhancements seen towa rds the Hyades cluster, in line-of-sight along the beta CMa interstellar tu nnel and towards high galactic latitudes in both hemispheres. A comparison of the distribution of these EUV sources with that of the neutral absorptio n boundary of the Local Bubble region derived from the interstellar NaI obs ervations of Sfeir et al. (1999) reveals that vast majority of EUV sources are contained within this neutral boundary. However, at high galactic latit udes 20 extragalactic EUV sources have been detected along lines-of-sight w ith low neutral column density, and is consistent with the local interstell ar cavity being "open-ended" in the galactic halo. This "Local Chimney" ope ns towards two regions of enhanced intensity of the 0.25 keV soft X-ray bac kground emission at high galactic latitudes. Although the hot Local Bubble gas is still contained within a cold, neutral interstellar gas boundary in the galactic plane, it has probably expanded into the halo to produce the L ocal Chimney feature.