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[15.02] Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the X-ray Tail in NGC 7619: First Direct Evidence of ICM Metal Enrichment

E. Kim, D.-W. Kim, G. Fabbiano (Harvard Smithonian CfA), G. Trinchieri (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy)

We present new observational results of NGC 7619, an elliptical galaxy with a prominent X-ray tail. With deep Chandra and XMM-Newton observations, we confirm the presence of the long hot gaseous tail extending toward the SW, which was first reported with ROSAT. However, this tail appears both narrower and less luminous in the high resolution image. We also identified a sharp discontinuity toward NE in the main galaxian halo. Both this structure and the direction of the tail are consistent with the effects of ram pressure of the hot intracluster medium (ICM) on the hot halo of NGC 7619, if this galaxy is moving toward NE. Our spectral analysis of the diffuse gaseous emission shows that the Iron abundance Z_Fe both in the core and the tail of NGC 7619 is much higher (2-3 solar) than that of the surrounding regions (<0.7 solar): this offers direct evidence of the process of metal enrichment of the ICM by stripping metal-rich hot halos from galaxies. We also resolve a large number (~20) of point-like sources in the X-ray tail. Some of them have soft X-ray spectra, reminiscent of the cooler clumps seen in the X-ray emitting halo of NGC 507 (Kim and Fabbiano 1995).

This work is supported in part by NASA contract GO2-3135X.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© YEAR. The American Astronomical Soceity.