[43.17] Infall of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC\,1404 into the Fornax Cluster

AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 43. Galaxies
Display, Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 10:00am-6:30pm, SW Exhibit Hall

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[43.17] Infall of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC\,1404 into the Fornax Cluster

A. Dosaj, C. J. Forman, W. R. Forman, M. L. Markevitch, A. A. Vikhlinin (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

We present our analysis of Chandra ACIS observations of the elliptical galaxies NGC\,1399 and NGC\,1404 in the Fornax cluster. The X-ray image of NGC\,1404 shows a sharp surface brightness edge on the side of the galaxy toward NGC\,1399, indicating that NGC\,1404 is falling toward NGC\,1399, through the cluster gas. A temperature map, derived from these observations, shows the ISM in NGC\,1404 is colder than the surrounding gas in the Fornax cluster. The edge is thus a cold front, shaped by the ram pressure of the cluster gas as NGC\,1404 falls towards the cluster center. We present a temperature map and density profiles of the gas around NGC\,1404 and a temperature map of the surrounding intracluster medium (ICM), as well as a measure of the infall velocity for NGC\,1404.

This work has been supported by NASA contract NAS8-39073, and the Smithsonian Institution.

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