Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999apj...521...99r&link_type=abstract
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 521, Issue 1, pp. 99-102.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
21
Galaxies: Clusters: Individual: Name: Virgo, Galaxies: Individual: Messier Number: M87, Ultraviolet: Galaxies, X-Rays: Galaxies
Scientific paper
We present hard X-ray observations of the nearby radio galaxy M87 and the core of the Virgo Cluster using the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. These are the first hard X-ray observations of M87 not affected by contamination from the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4388. Thermal emission from Virgo's intracluster medium is clearly detected and has a spectrum indicative of kT~2.5 keV plasma with approximately 25% cosmic abundances. No nonthermal (power-law) emission from M87 is detected in the hard X-ray band, with fluctuations in the cosmic X-ray background being the limiting factor. Combining with ROSAT data, we infer that the X-ray spectrum of the M87 core and jet must be steep (Gamma_core>1.90 and Gamma_jet>1.75), and we discuss the implications of this result. In particular, these results are consistent with M87 being a misaligned BL Lac object.
Begelman Mitchell C.
Fabian Andrew C.
Heinz Sebastian
Reynolds Christopher S.
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