HST NICMOS and WFPC2 observations of molecular hydrogen and dust in the central galaxies in cluster cooling flows

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

We present preliminary results of HST imaging observations of three central galaxies in X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies with putative major cooling flows in their cores: NGC 1275 in the Perseus cluster, Abell 2597, and PKS 0745-19. Narrow-band NICMOS imaging at 2 microns reveals extended, warm (/T~2000-3000 K) molecular hydrogen structures in the cores of Abell 2597 and PKS 0745-19 that appear to be co-spatial with the ionized hydrogen revealed in H/α+[N II] images obtained with WFPC2. The H2/H/α emission line ratio is unexpectedly high in Abell 2597 and PKS 0745-191: too high to be explained by shocks with /v>50 km s-1 or by power-law photo-ionization. Photo-ionization by the surrounding X-ray gas is unlikely in Abell 2597. Fluorescent heating by hot stars is plausible in both Abell 2597 and PKS 0745-191. No extended H2 emission was discovered in NGC 1275. The H2/Hα ratio allowed by our detection limits are consistent with shocks or nuclear photo-ionization in NGC 1275. A paper by Donahue et al. is in preparation.

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