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Issue A&A Volume 392, Number 1, September II 2002 Page(s) 13 - 17 Section Extragalactic astronomy DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20020696

A&A 392, 13-17 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20020696

A BeppoSAX view of the Centaurus Cluster

S. Molendi¹, S. De Grandi² and M. Guainazzi<sup>3

1</sup>  Istituto di Fisica Cosmica, CNR, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
²  Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy
³  XMM-Newton SOC, VILSPA ESA, Apartado 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain

(Received 4 October 2001 / Accepted 6 May (2002))

Abstract
We present results from the analysis of a BeppoSAX observation of the Centaurus Cluster. The radial metal abundance profile shows evidence of a large enhancement in the core, where Ab > 1 (sol. units). The temperature map indicates that the cluster is characterized by a gradient oriented in the NW/SE direction, with cooler gas in the NW and hotter gas in the SE ( keV). In hard X-rays, where the PDS detects emission with a flux of  erg/cm ²/s in the 20-200 keV band, the spectrum lies above the extrapolation of the cluster thermal emission. We discuss several possible interpretations for the hard excess finding that none is completely satisfactory.

Key words: X-rays: galaxies: clusters -- general: individual: Centaurus

Offprint request: S. Molendi, silvano@ifctr.mi.cnr.it

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