The powerful outburst in Hercules A

Details The powerful outburst in Hercules A The powerful outburst in Hercules A

2005-04-15

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504350v1

Astrophys.J. 625 (2005) L9-L12

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJL

Scientific paper

10.1086/430945

The radio source Hercules A resides at the center of a cooling flow cluster of galaxies at redshift z = 0.154. A Chandra X-ray image reveals a shock front in the intracluster medium (ICM) surrounding the radio source, about 160 kpc from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) that hosts it. The shock has a Mach number of 1.65, making it the strongest of the cluster-scale shocks driven by an AGN outburst found so far. The age of the outburst ~5.9e7 y, its energy about 3e61 erg and its mean power ~1.6e46 erg/s. As for the other large AGN outbursts in cooling flow clusters, this outburst overwhelms radiative losses from the ICM of the Hercules A cluster by a factor of ~100. It adds to the case that AGN outbursts are a significant source of preheating for the ICM. Unless the mechanical efficiency of the AGN in Hercules A exceeds 10%, the central black hole must have grown by more than 1.7e8 Msun to power this one outburst.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The powerful outburst in Hercules A 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 The powerful outburst in Hercules A, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The powerful outburst in Hercules A will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-402290