Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-01-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
7 pages with 6 Postscript figures in APS preprint style. To appear in Physics of Plasmas
Scientific paper
10.1063/1.1556300
Clusters of galaxies are the largest organized structures in the Universe. They are important cosmological probes, since they are large enough to contain a fair sample of the materials in the Universe, but small enough to have achieved dynamical equilibrium. Clusters were first discovered as concentrations of hundreds of bright galaxies in a region about 3 megaparsecs (10 million light years) across. However, the dominant observed form of matter in clusters is hot, diffuse intergalactic gas. This intracluster plasma has typical temperatures of T ~ 7e7 K, and typical electron densities of n_e ~ 10^{-3} cm^{-3}. This intracluster plasma mainly emits X-rays, and typical cluster X-ray luminosities are L_X ~ 10^{43} - 10^{45} erg/s. The basic properties of and physical processes in the intracluster plasma will be reviewed. Important observational constraints on plasma processes in these systems will be discussed. Recent X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies with the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory will be highlighted.
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