A detailed X-ray study of the cooling intracluster gas in A496.
Abstract
X-ray observations of the galaxy cluster A496 are presented. Imaging and spectral data, together with the presence of optical filaments, show that radiative cooling is occurring in the cluster core and indicates a mass flow rate of about 200 solar masses per year on to the central galaxy. The gas temperature and density profiles within the core are similar to those in the Perseus cluster (A426) despite a six-fold difference in total X-ray luminosity. This is consistent with the model of Fabian and Nulsen (1977, 1979) for steady flows caused by cooling. The evolution of cooling flows is discussed and it is shown that thermal conduction is suppressed to well below the Spitzer rate.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- June 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/199.4.1089
- Bibcode:
- 1982MNRAS.199.1089N
- Keywords:
-
- Cooling Flows (Astrophysics);
- Cosmic Gases;
- Emission Spectra;
- Galactic Clusters;
- Gas Cooling;
- Line Spectra;
- Radiative Heat Transfer;
- X Ray Astronomy;
- Astronomical Models;
- Electron Density Profiles;
- Galactic Structure;
- Gas Density;
- Gas Temperature;
- Light (Visible Radiation);
- Mass Flow Rate;
- Temperature Profiles;
- Thermal Conductivity;
- Astronomy;
- Clusters of Galaxies:Intergalactic Gas;
- Intergalactic Gas:Thermal Structure;
- Intergalactic Gas:X-Ray Spectra