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M. E. Machacek, C. Jones, W. R. Forman, P. Nulsen (SAO), L. Stirbat (Harvard)
The X-ray observation of hot gas features, such as leading surface brightness edges or trailing X-ray wakes and tails from galaxies in groups and clusters, offers exciting new opportunities to probe the physical processes governing the interactions of galaxies with their environment and to constrain the three dimensional motion of the galaxy through the ambient medium. Using Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of three nearby galaxies, the spiral NGC 6872 in Pavo and ellipticals NGC 1404 in Fornax and NGC 4552 in Virgo, spanning both a range of galaxy types and ICM/IGM gas temperatures and densities, we demonstrate how X-ray measurements of temperature, density, and metal abundance combined with high resolution X-ray images, revealing the geometry of the gas features, can be used to distinguish between competing models for galaxy-gas interactions. These models include tidal stripping, ram-pressure stripping, turbulent-viscous stripping, and gravitational focusing of the surrounding ambient gas into Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton wakes. This work was supported in part by the Smithsonian Institution, the Chandra Science Center, NASA grant GO3-4176A, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study of Harvard University.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.