Kavli Affiliate: Michael McDonald
| First 5 Authors: Michael Reefe, Michael McDonald, Marios Chatzikos, Jerome Seebeck, Richard Mushotzky
| Summary:
In the centers of many galaxy clusters, the hot ($sim$10$^7$ K) intracluster
medium (ICM) can become dense enough that it should cool on short timescales.
However, the low measured star formation rates in massive central galaxies and
absence of soft X-ray lines from cooling gas suggest that most of this gas
never cools – this is known as the "cooling flow problem." The latest
observations suggest that black hole jets are maintaining the vast majority of
gas at high temperatures. A cooling flow has yet to be fully mapped through all
gas phases in any galaxy cluster. Here, we present new observations of the
Phoenix cluster using the James Webb Space Telescope to map the [Ne VI]
$lambda$7.652$mu$m emission line, allowing us to probe gas at 10$^{5.5}$ K on
large scales. These data show extended [Ne VI] emission cospatial with (i) the
cooling peak in the ICM, (ii) the coolest gas phases, and (iii) sites of active
star formation. Taken together, these imply a recent episode of rapid cooling,
causing a short-lived spike in the cooling rate which we estimate to be
5,000-23,000 M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$. These data provide the first large-scale map
of gas at temperatures between 10$^5$-10$^6$ K in a cluster core, and highlight
the critical role that black hole feedback plays in not only regulating but
also promoting cooling.
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