Utilizing NASA’s Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have carried out detailed X-ray observations of a posh galaxy cluster referred to as Abell 119. Outcomes of the observational marketing campaign, printed August 9 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed extra gentle on the properties and nature of this cluster.
Galaxy clusters comprise as much as hundreds of galaxies sure collectively by gravity. They’re the biggest recognized gravitationally sure buildings within the universe, and will function glorious laboratories for finding out galaxy evolution and cosmology.
At a redshift of 0.044, Abell 119 (or A119 for brief) is a big galaxy cluster containing about 70 member galaxies. It hosts two narrow-angle tail (NAT) radio sources and its brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is UGC 579. Earlier observations have discovered that Abell 119 is a dynamically advanced cluster with a number of substructures.
A gaggle of astronomers led by Courtney B. Watson of Boston College determined to research Abell 119 with Chandra with a view to get extra insights into its properties. The examine was complemented by knowledge from ground-based observatories.
The observational marketing campaign of Abell 119 discovered that the general X-ray emission from the intracluster medium (ICM) is pretty uneven with an elongation to the northeast, leading to a “teardrop” form. Furthermore, the adaptively smoothed X-ray picture reveals the doable presence of clumpy substructure throughout the ICM.
The astronomers recognized two two cold fronts (CF1 and CF2) that might be related to type a sloshing spiral construction, which can be a results of an off-axis merger. This sloshing spiral construction may correspond to the elongated teardrop-shaped X-ray emission seen within the northeast course.
The observations detected a shock entrance positioned about 250 arcseconds from the cluster’s core and simply exterior of the potential sloshing chilly entrance. The shock has a Mach variety of 1.21 and its velocity is estimated to be 1,530 km/s, what’s per a merger shock.
The examine additionally discovered proof of Abell 119’s galaxies forming a filamentary construction which extends almost 26 million light years to the north-northeast course, which seems to attach Abell 119 to a different galaxy cluster—Abell 116.
Summing up the outcomes, the authors of the paper underlined that Abell 119 is a reasonably advanced system, with a possible sloshing spiral, a merger shock, and doable reference to a neighboring cluster by way of large-scale filamentary buildings. They added that their observations present proof of a latest or ongoing merger.
“Our outcomes present alignment of the elongated X-ray emission, the optical substructures, and the movement instructions of the radio jets/lobes of each NATs. This, with the comparability to simulations, all helps our image of latest or on-going merger exercise occurring within the NE-SW course,” the researchers concluded.
Extra data:
Courtney B. Watson et al, Chandra X-Ray Observations of Abell 119: Chilly Fronts And A Shock In An Advanced Off-Axis Merger, arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2308.04367
Journal data:
arXiv
© 2023 Science X Community
Quotation:
Complicated galaxy cluster Abell 119 explored by researchers (2023, August 17)
retrieved 17 August 2023
from https://phys.org/information/2023-08-complex-galaxy-cluster-abell-explored.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal examine or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is offered for data functions solely.
