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A 70 kpc X-ray tail in the cluster A3627

M. Sun, C. Jones, W. Forman, P. E. J. Nulsen, M. Donahue, M. Voit

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0511516

Abstract

We present the discovery of a 70 kpc X-ray tail behind the small late-type galaxy ESO137-001 in the nearby, hot (T=6.5 keV) merging cluster A3627, from both Chandra and XMM observations. The tail has a length-to-width ratio of ~ 10. It is luminous (L0.5-2 keV ~ 1041 ergs s-1, with a temperature of ~ 0.7 keV and an X-ray Mgas of ~ 109 Msolar (~ 10% of the galaxy's stellar mass). We interpret this tail as the stripped interstellar medium of ESO137-001 mixed with the hot cluster medium, when this blue galaxy is being converted into a gas-poor galaxy. Three X-ray point sources are detected in the axis of the tail, which may imply active star formation in the tail. The straightness and narrowness of the tail also implies that the ICM turbulence is not strong on scales of 20 - 70 kpc.

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