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J. A. Irwin (University of Michigan), A. E. Athey (Carnegie Observatories), J. N. Bregman (University of Michigan)
Despite years of effort, the temperature, metallicity, and cooling rate of hot X-ray--emitting gas within the cores of elliptical galaxies is still somewhat poorly known. Previous studies have attempted to fit a variety of spectral models to the gas: single component thermal models, multiple component models, models with variable metallicity, cooling flow models, etc. While some of the models have been successful in describing the spectrum of the gas in individual galaxies by individual authors, there is currently not a universally accepted spectral model to describe the gas. Here, we analyze the X-ray spectra of a sample of X-ray bright ellipticals observed with Chandra and XMM-Newton in order to find such a spectral model, and better understand the origin and evolution of hot gas within elliptical galaxies.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.