[Previous] | [Session 38] | [Next]
D.S. Davis (MIT), R.E. White (University of Alabama)
As observations of clusters of galaxies in the X-ray regime improve, there is increasing evidence that mergers in rich clusters are common. Like other rich clusters, Abell 2255 shows many of the signs of a major merger. These include an extensive radio halo, a pair of central dominant galaxies, elliptical X-ray isophotes that are offset from the dominant galaxies, and strong temperature variations in the X-ray emitting gas. The ROSAT PSPC data indicate that the gas temperature may vary by a factor of almost eight from the cool to the hot regions. Here we present ASCA observations of this cluster which confirm the strong spatial temperature variations seen in the X-ray gas with the ROSAT PSPC, and we discuss the merger history for this cluster.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: dsd@space.mit.edu