Probing the Outskirts of Clusters with Chandra, Suzaku and XMM
Abstract
The outskirts of galaxy clusters remain relatively unexplored territory and yet are vital to our understanding of cluster growth, structure, and mass. We have embarked on a program to probe the outer ICM in a large sample of galaxy clusters, exploiting the strengths of three complementary X-ray observatories, Suzaku, XMM-Newton, and Chandra. By combining observations from the cluster core to beyond R_{200}, we are able to identify and reduce systematic uncertainties that would impede our spatial and spectral analysis using a single telescope. We present our initial sample of six clusters and describe plans to triple the size of our sample, an improvement that will allow us to produce a fiducial data set for detailed comparison with high-resolution numerical simulations.
- Publication:
-
Structure in Clusters and Groups of Galaxies in the Chandra Era
- Pub Date:
- August 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011scgg.conf...35M