629 research outputs found
Simultaneous measurements of ozone outside and inside cabins of two B-747 airliners and a Gates Learjet business jet
The average amount of ozone measured in the cabins of two B-747 airliners varied from 40 percent to 80 percent of the atmospheric concentrations without special ozone destruction systems. A charcoal filter in the cabin air inlet system of one B-747 reduced the ozone to about 5 percent of the atmospheric concentration. A Learjet 23 was also instrumented with monitors to measure simultaneously the atmospheric and ozone concentrations. Results indicate that a significant portion of the atmospheric ozone is not destroyed in the pressurization system and remains in the aircraft cabin of the Learjet. For the two cabin configurations tested, the ozone retentions were 63 and 41 percent of the atmospheric ozone concentrations. Ozone concentrations measured in the cabin near the conditioned-air outlets were reduced only slightly from atmospheric ozone concentrations. It is concluded that a constant difference between ozone concentrations inside and outside the cabin does not exist
A Puzzling Merger in A3266: the Hydrodynamic Picture from XMM-Newton
Using the mosaic of nine XMM-Newton observations, we study the hydrodynamic
state of the merging cluster of galaxies Abell 3266. The high quality of the
spectroscopic data and large field of view of XMM-Netwon allow us to determine
the thermodynamic conditions of the intracluster medium on scales of order of
50 kpc. A high quality entropy map reveals the presence of an extended region
of low entropy gas, running from the primary cluster core toward the northeast
along the nominal merger axis. The mass of the low entropy gas amounts to
approximately 2e13 solar masses, which is comparable to the baryonic mass of
the core of a rich cluster. We test the possibility that the origin of the
observed low entropy gas is either related to the disruption a preexisting
cooling core in Abell 3266 or to the stripping of gas from an infalling
subcluster companion. We find that both the radial pressure and entropy
profiles as well as the iron abundance of Abell 3266 do not resemble those in
other known cooling core clusters (Abell 478). Thus we conclude that the low
entropy region is subcluster gas in the process of being stripped off from its
dark matter halo. In this scenario the subcluster would be falling onto the
core of A3266 from the foreground. This would also help interpret the observed
high velocity dispersion of the galaxies in the cluster center, provided that
the mass of the subcluster is at most a tenth of the mass of the main cluster.Comment: 6 pages, ApJ sub
X-ray Properties of the Abell 644 Cluster of Galaxies
We use new ASCA observations and archival ROSAT Position Sensitive
Proportional Counter (PSPC) data to determine the X-ray spectral properties of
the intracluster gas in Abell 644. From the overall spectrum, we determine the
average gas temperature to be 8.64 (+0.67,-0.56) keV, and an abundance of 0.32
(+/-0.04) . The global ASCA and ROSAT spectra imply a cooling rate
of 214 (+100,-91) yr. The PSPC X-ray surface brightness
profile and the ASCA data suggest a somewhat higher cooling rate. We determine
the gravitational mass and gas mass as a function of radius. The total
gravitating mass within 1.2 Mpc is , of which 20%
is in the form of hot gas. There is a region of elevated temperature 1.5-5
arcmin to the west of the cluster center. The south-southwest region of the
cluster also shows excess emission in the ROSAT PSPC X-ray image, aligned with
the major axis of the optical cD galaxy in the center of the cluster. We argue
that the cluster is undergoing or has recently undergone a minor merger. The
combination of a fairly strong cooling flow and evidence for a merger make this
cluster an interesting case to test the disruption of cooling flow in mergers.Comment: 26 pages LaTeX including 9 eps figures + 4 pages LaTeX tables
(landscape); accepted to ApJ, uses aaspp
Measuring Cluster Temperature Profiles with XMM/EPIC
Using the PV observation of A1795, we illustrate the capability of XMM-EPIC
to measure cluster temperature profiles, a key ingredient for the determination
of cluster mass profiles through the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium. We
develop a methodology for spatially resolved spectroscopy of extended sources,
adapted to XMM background and vignetting characteristics. The effect of the
particle induced background is discussed. A simple unbiased method is proposed
to correct for vignetting effects, in which every photon is weighted according
to its energy and location on the detector. We were able to derive the
temperature profile of A1795 up to 0.4 times the virial radius. A significant
and spatially resolved drop in temperature towards the center (r<200 kpc) is
observed, which corresponds to the cooling flow region of the cluster. Beyond
that region, the temperature is constant with no indication of a fall-off at
large radii out to 1.2 Mpc.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A (special Letter
issue on XMM
A Collision of Subclusters in Abell 754
We present direct evidence of a collision of subclusters in the galaxy
cluster Abell 754. Our comparison of new optical data and archival ROSAT PSPC
X-ray data reveal three collision signatures predicted by n-body/hydrodynamical
simulations of hierarchical cluster evolution. First, there is strong evidence
of a non-hydrostatic process; neither of the two major clumps in the galaxy
distribution lies on the off-center peak of the X-ray emission from the
intracluster gas. Second, the peak of the X-ray emission is elongated
perpendicular to the collision axis defined by the centroids of the two galaxy
clumps. Third, there is evidence of compression-heated gas; one of A754's two
X-ray temperature components (Henry & Briel 1995) is among the hottest observed
in any cluster and hotter than that inferred from the velocity dispersion of
the associated galaxy clump. These signatures are consistent with the
qualitative features of simulations (Evrard 1990a,b) in which two subclusters
have collided in the plane of the sky during roughly the last Gyr. The
detection of such collisions is crucial for understanding both the dynamics of
individual clusters and the underlying cosmology. First, for systems like A754,
estimating the cluster X-ray mass from assumptions of hydrostatic equilibrium
and isothermality is incorrect and may produce the discrepancies sometimes
found between X-ray masses and those derived from gravitational lens models
(Babul & Miralda-Escude 1994). Second, the fraction of nearby clusters in which
subclusters have collided in the last Gyr is especially sensitive to the mean
mass density parameter Omega_0 (cf. Richstone et al. 1992; Evrard et al. 1993;
Lacey & Cole 1993). With a large, well-defined cluster sample, it will be
possible to place a new and powerful constraint on cosmological models.Comment: 4 pages + 1 color figure (Postscript). Accepted for Publication in
ApJ Letter
ROSAT PSPC Observations of the Richest () ACO Clusters
We have compiled an X-ray catalog of optically selected rich clusters of
galaxies observed by the PSPC during the pointed GO phase of the ROSAT mission.
This paper contains a systematic X-ray analysis of 150 clusters with an optical
richness classification of from the ACO catalog (Abell, Corwin, and
Olowin 1989). All clusters were observed within 45' of the optical axis of the
telescope during pointed PSPC observations. For each cluster, we calculate: the
net 0.5-2.0 keV PSPC count rate (or upper limit) in a 1 Mpc radius
aperture, 0.5-2.0 keV flux and luminosity, bolometric luminosity, and X-ray
centroid. The cluster sample is then used to examine correlations between the
X-ray and optical properties of clusters, derive the X-ray luminosity function
of clusters with different optical classifications, and obtain a quantitative
estimate of contamination (i.e, the fraction of clusters with an optical
richness significantly overestimated due to interloping galaxies) in the ACO
catalog
Measuring Molecular, Neutral Atomic, and Warm Ionized Galactic Gas Through X-Ray Absorption
We study the column densities of neutral atomic, molecular, and warm ionized
Galactic gas through their continuous absorption of extragalactic X-ray spectra
at |b| > 25 degrees. For N(H,21cm) < 5x10^20 cm^-2 there is an extremely tight
relationship between N(H,21cm) and the X-ray absorption column, N(xray), with a
mean ratio along 26 lines of sight of N(xray)/N(H,21cm) = 0.972 +- 0.022. This
is significantly less than the anticpated ratio of 1.23, which would occur if
He were half He I and half He II in the warm ionized component. We suggest that
the ionized component out of the plane is highly ionized, with He being mainly
He II and He III. In the limiting case that H is entirely HI, we place an upper
limit on the He abundance in the ISM of He/H <= 0.103.
At column densities N(xray) > 5x10^20 cm^-2, which occurs at our lower
latitudes, the X-ray absorption column N(xray) is nearly double N(H,21cm). This
excess column cannot be due to the warm ionized component, even if He were
entirely He I, so it must be due to a molecular component. This result implies
that for lines of sight out of the plane with |b| ~ 30 degrees, molecular gas
is common and with a column density comprable to N(H,21cm).
This work bears upon the far infrared background, since a warm ionized
component, anticorrelated with N(H,21cm), might produce such a background. Not
only is such an anticorrelation absent, but if the dust is destroyed in the
warm ionized gas, the far infrared background may be slightly larger than that
deduced by Puget et al. (1996).Comment: 1 AASTeX file, 14 PostScript figure files which are linked within the
TeX fil
A Mosaic of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies with XMM-Newton
The Coma cluster of galaxies was observed with XMM-Newton in 12 partially
overlapping pointings. We present here the resulting X-ray map in different
energy bands and discuss the large scale structure of this cluster. Many point
sources were found throughout the observed area, at least 11 of them are
coincident with bright galaxies. We also give a hardness ratio map at the so
far highest angular resolution obtained for a cluster of galaxies. In this map
we found soft regions at the position of bright galaxies, little variation in
the central 15 arcmin, but some harder regions north of the line NGC 4874 - NGC
4889.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepetd for publication in the A&A special issue
on XMM-Newton result
South-West extension of the hard X-ray emission from the Coma cluster
We explore the morphology of hard (18-30 keV) X-ray emission from the Coma
cluster of galaxies. We analyze a deep (1.1 Ms) observation of the Coma cluster
with the ISGRI imager on board the \emph{INTEGRAL} satellite. We show that the
source extension in the North-East to South-West (SW) direction ()
significantly exceeds the size of the point spread function of ISGRI, and that
the centroid of the image of the source in the 18-30 keV band is displaced in
the SW direction compared to the centroid in the 1-10 keV band. To test the
nature of the SW extension we fit the data assuming different models of source
morphology. The best fit is achieved with a diffuse source of elliptical shape,
although an acceptable fit can be achieved assuming an additional point source
SW of the cluster core. In the case of an elliptical source, the direction of
extension of the source coincides with the direction toward the subcluster
falling onto the Coma cluster. If the SW excess is due to the presence of a
point source with a hard spectrum, we show that there is no obvious X-ray
counterpart for this additional source, and that the closest X-ray source is
the quasar EXO 1256+281, which is located from the centroid of the
excess. The observed morphology of the hard X-ray emission clarifies the nature
of the hard X-ray "excess" emission from the Coma cluster, which is due to the
presence of an extended hard X-ray source SW of the cluster core.Comment: 7pages, 10 figure
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