The X-ray coronae of the two brightest galaxies in the Coma cluster
Abstract
We use deep Chandra X-ray Observatory observations to examine the coronae of the two brightest cluster galaxies in the Coma cluster of galaxies, NGC 4874 and NGC 4889. We find that NGC 4889 hosts a central depression in X-ray surface brightness consistent with a cavity or pair of cavities of radius 0.6 kpc. If the central cavity is associated with an AGN outburst and contains relativistic material, its enthalpy should be around 5x10^55 erg. The implied heating power of this cavity would be around an order of magnitude larger than the energy lost by X-ray emission. It would be the smallest and youngest known cavity in a brightest cluster galaxy and the lack of over pressuring implies heating is still gentle. In contrast, NGC 4874 does not show any evidence for cavities, although it hosts a well-known wide-angle-tail radio source which is visible outside the region occupied by the X-ray corona. These two galaxies show that AGN feedback can behave in varied ways in the same cluster environment.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1401.3131,
title = {The X-ray coronae of the two brightest galaxies in the Coma cluster},
author = {J. S. Sanders and A. C. Fabian and M. Sun and E. Churazov and A. Simionescu and S. A. Walker and N. Werner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.3131},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
11 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRAS