Proceedings of The Riddle of Cooling Flows in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies, May 31 - June 4, 2003, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, Ed. T. H. Reiprich, J. C. Kempner, & N. Soker

For a PDF version of the article, click here.


THE INTERACTION OF RADIO SOURCES AND X-RAY-EMITTING GAS IN COOLING FLOWS

Elizabeth L. Blanton 1, 2

1 University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, P.O. Box 3818, Charlottesville, VA 22903; eblanton@virginia.edu
2 Chandra Fellow


Abstract. Recent observations of the interactions between radio sources and the X-ray-emitting gas in cooling flows in the cores of clusters of galaxies are reviewed. The radio sources inflate bubbles in the X-ray gas, which then rise buoyantly outward in the clusters transporting energy to the intracluster medium (ICM). The bright rims of gas around the radio bubbles are cool, rather than hot, and do not show signs of being strongly shocked. Energy deposited into the ICM over the lifetime of a cluster through several outbursts of a radio source helps to account for at least some of the gas that is missing in cooling flows at low temperatures.


Table of Contents

Next