2002/06/27 by Noriko Y. Yamasaki, N. Y. Yamasaki, T. Ohashi +1 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/342652
published as Astrophys.J. 578 (2002) 833-841 · 12 pages, 7 figures, Latex2e(emulateapj5), accepted in ApJ
arxiv created 2002/06/27 · openalex publication_date 2002/10/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
A Chandra observation of the central region of the A1060 cluster of galaxies resolved X-ray emission from two giant elliptical galaxies, NGC 3311 and NGC 3309. The emission from these galaxies consists of two components, namely, the hot interstellar medium (ISM) and the low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We found that the spatial extent of the ISM component was much smaller than that of stars for both galaxies, while the ratios of X-ray to optical blue-band luminosities were rather low but within the general scatter for elliptical galaxies. After subtracting the LMXB component, the ISM is shown to be in pressure balance with the intracluster medium of A1060 at the outer boundary of the ISM. These results imply that the hot gas supplied from stellar mass loss is confined by the external pressure of the intracluster medium, with the thermal conduction likely to be suppressed. The cD galaxy NGC 3311 does not exhibit the extended potential structure that is commonly seen in bright elliptical galaxies, and we discuss the possible evolution history of the very isothermal cluster A1060.