HI absorption associated with Norma's brightest cluster galaxy [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.06680


ESO 137-G006 is the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the cool-core and dynamically young Norma cluster. We discover an atomic hydrogen (HI) absorption line associated with this BCG using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We estimate a gas column density of $ \approx (1.3 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{20}\,T_{\rm{spin}}$ atoms cm$^{-2}$ with spin temperature, $T_{\rm{spin}} \leq 194$ K, consistent with the HI properties of other early-type galaxies and cool-core cluster BCGs. The relationship between the presence of cold gas and a cluster cooling flow is unclear. Our results support the scenario that ESO 137-G006 may be a recent arrival to the cluster centre and not the original BCG. This scenario is consistent with the observed spatial alignment of the BCG’s wide-angle tail radio lobes with Norma’s X-ray sub-cluster and the significant line-of-sight velocity offset between the mean velocity of Norma and that of the BCG.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Saraf, O. Wong, L. Cortese, et. al.
Wed, 14 Dec 22
64/69

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 10 pages, 3 figures (additional 4 pages, 3 figures in appendix)