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B.R. McNamara (Ohio U.& CfA), M.W. Wise (MIT/CSR), L.P. David (CfA), P.E.J. Nulsen (Wollongong U.), C.L. Sarazin (U. Virginia)
New Chandra imagery has revealed a remarkable degree of structure in the gaseous cores of cooling flow clusters. The most striking X-ray structures in the Hydra A and Abell 2597 clusters are associated with the powerful radio sources located in the nuclei of their giant, cluster central galaxies. The brightest X-ray emission from the densest gas in both objects is found in the projected regions between their radio lobes. Surface brightness depressions or cavities in the X-ray emission are found at the locations of their radio lobes. The cavities apparently formed as the hot gas was displaced by the radio lobes while they expanded into the intracluster medium. The brightest X-ray emission appears to be associated with regions of ongoing star formation in the central galaxies. The cooling time of the gas in the 10 kpc region surrounding the circumnuclear disk of star formation in Hydra A is less than 600 Myr. In this region, the rates of cooling and star formation (roughly 8 solar masses per year) are in reasonably good agreement for a plausible range of star formation histories.