The nature of the hard X-ray power-law tail in M 87
Abstract
Spatially-resolved spectroscopy of the elliptical galaxy M 87 with the MECS instrument on board BeppoSAX demonstrates that the hard X-ray power-law tail, originally discovered by ASCA (Matsumoto et al. 1996; Allen et al. 1999), originates in the innermost 2arcmin . Our results are consistent with it being produced in an Accretion Dominated Flow, although a substantial jet contribution cannot be ruled out. An origin from a Seyfert-like nucleus is disfavored by our data. As a by-product of this result, we present an analysis of the thermal emission coming from the center of the Virgo cluster, which exhibits a strong positive radial temperature gradient, along with a radial decrease of the iron abundance.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- November 1999
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.astro-ph/9910271
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9910271
- Bibcode:
- 1999A&A...351L..19G
- Keywords:
-
- ACCRETION;
- ACCRETION DISKS;
- GALAXIES: NUCLEI;
- GALAXIES: INDIVIDUAL: M 87;
- GALAXIES: CLUSTERS: INDIVIDUAL: VIRGO;
- X-RAYS: GALAXIES;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 Latex pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy &