Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-11-18
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To be published in a January 2005 issue of Nature
Scientific paper
We report the discovery of a pair of giant cavities, each nearly 200 kpc in diameter, embedded in the gaseous halo of the redshift z=0.216 galaxy cluster MS0735.6+7421. The cavities appear as surface brightness depressions in an image of the cluster taken with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The X-ray cavities are filled with radio emission and are bounded by an elliptical shock structure resembling a ``radio cocoon.'' The shock's energy and age, ~6E61 erg and ~100 Myr, respectively, give a time averaged power of ~1.7E46 erg/s, making it the most powerful radio outburst known. The outburst is apparently heating the cluster by 1/3 keV per particle, which is sufficient to quench a large cooling flow for several Gyr and to supply a substantial fraction of the energy required to "preheat" the cluster. If the outburst was powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole, more than 3E8 solar masses of material would be required to do so. This implies that the putative supermassive black hole lying at the center of the cD galaxy has accreted a substantial fraction of its own mass in less than 100 Myr.
Blanton Elizabeth L.
Carilli Chris
McNamara Brian R.
Nulsen Paul E. J.
Rafferty David A.
No associations
LandOfFree
Heating a Distant Galaxy Cluster by Giant X-ray Cavities and Large-Scale Shock Fronts does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Heating a Distant Galaxy Cluster by Giant X-ray Cavities and Large-Scale Shock Fronts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Heating a Distant Galaxy Cluster by Giant X-ray Cavities and Large-Scale Shock Fronts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-84775