High resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy of M 87 with the reflection grating spectrometers on XMM-Newton

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 391, Number 3, September I 2002


Page(s)		903 - 909
Section		Extragalactic astronomy
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20020900

A&A 391, 903-909 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20020900

High resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy of M 87 with the reflection grating spectrometers on $\vec{XMM-Newton}$

I. Sakelliou¹, J. R. Peterson², T. Tamura³, F. B. S. Paerels², J. S. Kaastra³, E. Belsole⁴, H. Böhringer⁵, G. Branduardi-Raymont¹, C. Ferrigno³, J. W. den Herder³, J. Kennea⁶, R. F. Mushotzky⁷, W. T. Vestrand⁸ and D. M. Worrall⁹

¹ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
² Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, 550 W. 120th St., New York, NY10027, USA
³ SRON National Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands
⁴ CEA Saclay, Service d'Astrophysique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany
⁶ Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
⁷ NASA/GSFC, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
⁸ NIS-2, MS D436, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK

(Received 7 February 2002 / Accepted 12 June 2002 )

Abstract
We present high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of M 87 with the Reflection Grating Spectrometers on XMM-Newton. We detect strong K-shell line emission from N, O, Ne, Mg, some emission from He-like Si, a fully resolved set of Fe L-shell emission spectra, and some emission from C. The angular intensity distributions of the strong emission lines are detectably resolved on scales $(15{-}160) \arcsec$ . The gas in the inner arcmin of M 87 has a multi-phase structure, as indicated by the similarity of the emission line profiles of Fe L shell ions with widely separated ionization potentials. The global Fe L spectrum is approximately consistent with an isothermal plasma at $kT_{\rm e} \sim 1.8$ keV, in addition to a component with a temperature distribution appropriate to an isobaric cooling flow, but with a minimum temperature cutoff of $kT_{\rm min} \approx 600$ eV. The behaviour of this cooling-flow component is qualitatively similar to what is seen in other cooling flow clusters. Finally, we do not find any strong evidence for a spatial variation in abundances due to resonance scattering redistribution in the inner arcminute of the core.

Key words: galaxies: clusters: general -- galaxies: clusters: individual: virgo -- galaxies: individual: M 87 -- galaxies: cooling flows -- galaxies: abundances -- X-rays: galaxies

Offprint request: I. Sakelliou, irini@star.sr.bham.ac.uk

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