2002/06/26 by Fabrizio Brighenti, William G. Mathews · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/342190
published as Astrophys.J. 574 (2002) L11-L16 · 4 pages (emulateapj5) with 3 figures; accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters
arxiv created 2002/06/26 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The density irregularities and holes visible in many Chandra X-ray images of cluster and galactic cooling flows can be produced by symmetrically heated gas near the central galactic black hole. As the heated gas rises away from the galactic center, a relatively small number of large plumes and bubbles are formed in qualitative agreement with the observed features. The expanding centrally heated gas drives a shock into the surrounding gas, displacing it radially. Both computational and analytic results show that the ambient gas near the bubble is cooled by expansion, accounting for the cool rims commonly observed around X-ray holes in cooling flows.