The Multi-colored Hot Insterstellar Medium of the Antennae
Abstract
We present a multi-color X-ray image based on Chandra observations of the extended soft emission in the Antennae. It suggests considerable absorption by dust, as well as variations in the temperature of different regions of the hot interstellar medium. We compare the distribution of the extended X-ray emission with emission detected at other wavebands (6 cm radio continuum, HI, CO, and H-alpha), allowing us a look at the multiphase ISM. Pressures in the hot and cold gas in the nuclear regions appear very similar. The remarkable displacement between the X-ray on the one hand, and the H-alpha, radio continuum, and HI on the other in the northern spiral arm may well be due to ram pressure from infalling gas.
This research has been supported by NASA contract NAS 8-39073 (CXC).- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003AAS...20312202R