Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jun 1990
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990a%26a...232..317d&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 232, no. 2, June 1990, p. 317-322.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
56
Cooling Flows (Astrophysics), Elliptical Galaxies, Infrared Astronomy Satellite, Centaurus Constellation, Cosmic Dust, Interstellar Gas, Radiation Distribution, X Ray Spectra
Scientific paper
The elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 is characterized on the basis of IRAS (60- and 100-micron), IUE (UV), and Einstein (X-ray) observations and ground-based optical photometry and spectroscopy. It is found that the galaxy's IR emission can be attributed to 2.5 x 10 to the 6th solar mass of dust at temperature 24 K, heated by interstellar photons and hot electrons from the X-ray gas. About 90 percent of the dust mass is shown to be spread over a region of radius about 10 kpc, while the remaining 10 percent forms a horseshoe-shaped dust lane near the galaxy center. It is suggested that the dust in NGC 4696 is replenished at a rate of about 0.2 solar mass/yr by evaporation of cool gas clouds (from a gas-rich dwarf galaxy which recently collided with NGC 4696). The mechanisms responsible for heating the gas are discussed in detail, and possible similarities between NGC 4696 and M87 are briefly considered.
de Jong Teije
Hansen Leif
Jorgensen Henning E.
Norgaard-Nielsen Hans Ulrik
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