Metal Concentration and X-Ray Cool Spectral Component in the Central Region of the Centaurus Cluster of Galaxies
Abstract
Spatially resolved energy spectra in the energy range 0.5--10 keV have been measured for the Centaurus cluster of galaxies with ASCA\@. Within 10' (200 kpc) from the cluster center, the helium-like iron K emission line exhibits a dramatic increase toward the center rising from an equivalent width ~ 500 eV to ~ 1500 eV\@ corresponding to an abundance change from 0.3 to 1.0 solar. The presence of strong iron L lines indicates an additional cool component (kT ~ 1 keV) within 10' from the center. The cool component requires absorption in excess of the galactic value and this excess absorption increases towards the central region of the cluster. In the surrounding region with radius greater than 10', the spectra are well described by a single temperature thermal model with kT ~ 4 keV and spatially uniform abundances at about 0.3--0.4 times solar. The detection of metal-rich hot and cool gas in the cluster center implies a complex nature of the central cluster gas which is likely to be related to the presence of the central cD galaxy NGC 4696.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
- Pub Date:
- June 1994
- Bibcode:
- 1994PASJ...46L..55F
- Keywords:
-
- Abundance;
- Galactic Clusters;
- Galaxies;
- Metallicity;
- Brightness;
- Temperature Effects;
- Astrophysics;
- GALAXIES: ABUNDANCES;
- GALAXIES: CLUSTERING;
- GALAXIES: CLUSTERS: INDIVIDUAL: (CENTAURUS);
- X-RAYS: GALAXIES