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R. Samuele, B.R. McNamara (Ohio U.), C.R. Mullis (U. Michigan), A. Vikhlinin, W. Forman (CfA), I.M. Gioia (Institutio di Radioastronomia del CNR, Italy), J.P. Henry (U. Hawaii), A. Hornstrup (DSRI), C. Jones (CfA), H. Quintana (U. Catolica de Chile)
Optical spectra of brightest cluster galaxies selected from the 160 Square Degree ROSAT cluster survey (Vikhlinin et al. 1999) are used to measure the equivalent widths of \rm\,[OII]\lambda3727\, and \rm\,H\alpha\, nebular emission lines. This line emission is used to trace warm ionized gas in the interstellar media of 77 brightest cluster galaxies. Their redshifts lie between z=0.066-0.7, while their X-ray luminosities range between \rm LX =0.04-4.27\times1044\,erg\,s-1\,[0.5-2\,keV]. We find no \rm\,[OII]\lambda 3727\, or \rm\,H\alpha\, emission stronger than -15\,Å\, or -5\,Å\, respectively. A comparison between our sample and the frequency of brightest cluster galaxies with strong line emission from the Brightest Cluster Survey (Crawford et al. 1999) suggests that we could have detected nearly a dozen emission-line galaxies. We discuss several interpretations of this apparent dearth of emission line galaxies detected in our survey.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: samuele@helios.phy.ohiou.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.