The Distributions of Hot Gas and Iron in the Virgo Cluster
Abstract
This is the first attempt to explain the observed iron radial gradient in the hot gas of the Virgo cluster. By combining the available models of elliptical galaxy formation with the observed luminosity distribution of galaxies, we show that the radial distribution as well as the total amount of iron observed in the Virgo intracluster gas can be explained by the ejection of iron from the member galaxies with an IMF exponent of ~ 1. It is also found that the iron distribution is similar to the luminosity distribution of early type galaxies, while it is quite different from that of late type galaxies. These results lend strong support to the iron enrichment of the intracluster medium through the galactic wind from the early type galaxies. On the other hand, the total gas mass supplied by these models is less than the total mass of the X-ray emitting gas in the Virgo cluster by an order of magnitude, as shown in previous studies. The implications of these results are discussed.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
- Pub Date:
- October 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993PASJ...45..669O
- Keywords:
-
- Abundance;
- Astronomical Models;
- Distribution (Property);
- High Temperature Gases;
- Iron;
- Virgo Galactic Cluster;
- Galactic Evolution;
- Galactic Mass;
- Interstellar Magnetic Fields;
- Luminosity;
- X Rays;
- Astrophysics;
- GALAXIES: CLUSTERS OF;
- GALAXIES: EVOLUTION;
- CLUSTERS: INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM;
- ABUNDANCE