A ROSAT HRI survey of bright nearby galaxies

The ROSAT public archive contains HRI observations covering more than 100 of the 486 galaxies observed in the 'search for dwarf Seyferts' of Ho et al (1997). We have catalogued a large subset of the best observed galaxies (83 in total), recording discrete X-ray sources coincident with both the galaxy disks and the optical nuclei. We present selected results from this survey. Highlights include a substantial population of very luminous non-nuclear sources. Nuclear X-ray sources are observed in over 50% of galaxies; if these are associated with a super-massive black hole, then they must have a significantly sub-Eddington accretion rate.