Sloshing cold front detected in a massive galaxy cluster

By analyzing the info from NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers from India and South Africa have investigated an enormous galaxy cluster often known as Abell 2566. They detected sloshing chilly fronts within the intracluster medium (ICM) of this cluster. The discovering was reported in a analysis paper published Might 17 on the preprint server arXiv.

Galaxy clusters include as much as 1000’s of galaxies sure collectively by gravity. They’re the biggest identified gravitationally sure buildings within the universe, and will function wonderful laboratories for learning galaxy evolution and cosmology.

Usually, the so-called chilly fronts are sharp floor brightness discontinuities noticed in X-ray photographs, the place the drop of the floor brightness and gas density is accompanied by a bounce within the gasoline temperature, with the denser area colder than the extra rarefied area.

Now, a crew of astronomers led by Sonali Okay. Kadam of the Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada College in India has recognized such options in Abell 2566—a cool core galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.08, with an estimated mass of about 217 trillion solar plenty.

By analyzing Chandra photographs and archival radio information, Kadam’s crew discovered proof of gasoline sloshing within the core of Abell 2566 together with a pair of chilly fronts in its surroundings.

To start with, the collected photographs unveiled an uncommon morphology of ICM distribution—within the type of spiral-shaped gasoline sloshing together with edges within the floor brightness distribution. Spectral evaluation carried out by the astronomers then confirmed an affiliation of those morphological discontinuities with the chilly fronts.

“An in depth evaluation of the sectorial brightness profiles alongside these edges affirm their origin as a consequence of sloshing of gasoline, known as the sloshing chilly fronts,” the researchers defined.

Moreover, the observations recognized an offset of about 22,200 light years between the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) and the X-ray emission peak, in addition to shut affiliation of the BCG with a neighboring system. The authors of the paper suppose that this offset may need yielded the sloshing construction in Abell 2566.

Primarily based on the collected information, the astronomers assume that the noticed options and sophisticated morphology of plasma distribution in Abell 2566 share a standard origin—as they might be as a consequence of a minor merger. The crew famous {that a} sub-cluster might have disturbed the principle cluster by displacing its gravitational potential effectively.

“Such a displacement additional leads to the formation of chilly fronts, the concentrically formed borders within the floor brightness produced by the core’s gasoline because it strikes across the potential effectively. These cold fronts additional develop spiral patterns within the plasma distribution offered the sloshing path is near the airplane of sky,” the scientists concluded.

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