From sci.astro again <img src="http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/~amr/arp270_rgb.jpg"><img src="http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/~amr/ARP_270_I_103a-D_a1966.jpg"> Approved: Royal Astronomical Society Press Notice Date: 5 April 2002 EMBARGOED UNTIL 7 am BST, THURSDAY 11 APRIL 2002 Ref. PN 02/21 (NAM 15) Issued by: RAS Press Officers Peter Bond (Except 8 - 12 April) Tel: +44 (0)1483-268672 Fax: +44 (0)1483-274047 Mobile phone: +44 (0)7711-213486 E-mail: PeterRBond@cs.com AND Dr Jacqueline Mitton (Except 7 - 13 April) Tel: +44 (0)1223-564914 Fax: +44 (0)1223-572892 Mobile phone: +44 (0)7770-386133 E-mail: jmitton@dial.pipex.com NAM PRESS ROOM (9 -12 April only): +44 (0)117 928-4337 +44 (0)117 928-4338 +44 (0)117 954-5913 +44 (0)117 928-7901 UK National Astronomy Meeting Web site: http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/nam/index.html CONTACT FOR THIS RELEASE During the National Astronomy Meeting, Dr. Read can be contacted via the NAM press office (see above) on Wednesday 10 April and Thursday 11 April. Normal contact details: Dr. Andrew Read, Astrophysics & Space Research Group, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Watson building: G16, Birmingham B15 2TT Tel: +44 (0)121-414-6466 Fax: +44 (0)121-414-3722 E-mail: amr@star.sr.bham.ac.uk Web: http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/~amr/ ************************************************************* X-RAYS EXAMINE COLLIDING GALAXIES Galaxies were once thought of as 'island universes' evolving slowly in complete isolation. This is now known not to be the case. By using the world's most powerful X-ray observatories, UK astronomers are discovering that most of these gigantic star systems interact with each other in a wide variety of ways. During the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Bristol on Thursday 11 April, Dr. Andrew Read (University of Birmingham) will present new results from the Chandra and XMM-Newton spacecraft about the nature of these colliding galaxies. Famous examples of such cosmic collisions studied by Dr. Read include the 'Antennae', the 'Mice' and Markarian 266. "The X-ray properties of merging galaxies are the result of very hot and energetic phenomena -- massive stars, supernovae and supernova remnants, collapsed objects (black holes, neutron stars) and hot diffuse gas," said Read. "With the recent launch of Chandra and XMM, we can now use the vastly superior power, sensitivity and resolution of these new X-ray telescopes to extend our research to study many kinds of merging galaxy systems." Several of the bright interacting systems reveal a very diffuse, extended X-ray emission that seems to arise from very hot (a few million degrees Celsius) material ejected from the galaxies. This ejection process seems to begin very soon after the galaxies first encounter one another and rapidly creates distorted flows of outflowing gas. Meanwhile, vigorous star formation is seen in the galactic nuclei and within the merging disks. Other phenomena, resulting from star formation and expulsion of hot gas in the early stages of interaction, are seen as the galactic disks collide. More massive gaseous X-ray ejections (perhaps involving up to 10 billion solar masses of hot gas) are seen at the 'ultraluminous' peak of the interaction, as the galactic nuclei coalesce. In the new Chandra X-ray images, red represents soft (cool) X-ray emission [0.2-0.9 keV], green intermediate [0.9-2.5 keV] and blue hard (hot) X-ray emission [2.5-10 keV]. Within Arp 270, a system in the early stages of a merger, the galactic disks are still very distinct. The X-ray image shows relatively cool (less than 1 million degrees Celsius) diffuse gaseous emission associated with the two disks and several point sources of varying X-ray energy (indicators of varying temperatures) are seen scattered within the galaxies. Of particular interest are the 'hard' point sources visible where the disks collide. A new idea that is being considered is that they may be due to strong star-formation as the two gaseous disks rotate through each other. The 'Mice' show bright X-ray features from both galaxy nuclei, and further emission from within the northern tail. The southern nucleus appears harder in X-rays than the northern. The northern galaxy, however, shows what appears to be a small bipolar X-ray outflow -- a great rarity in such a violently evolving, classical merger system. Markarian 266 consists of two galaxies about to merge. The Chandra image resolves their nuclei, with the northern nucleus emitting higher energy X-rays and appearing significantly hotter. Interestingly, very soft, diffuse gaseous emission is seen to the north and to the east of the system -- thought to be due to a stronger, more evolved and more distorted outflow than seen in the 'Mice'. Observations such as these will enable astronomers to address important questions, such as when, where and how these ejection processes occur, and how much energy, gas and metal is injected by merging galaxies out into the intergalactic medium. This has profound implications for galactic formation and evolution, for group/cluster evolution and for the total mass content of the universe. NOTES FOR EDITORS: Collisions and mergers of galaxies are now thought to be one of the most dominant mechanisms in the evolution of these giant star systems. Even our own Milky Way galaxy is presently interacting with the nearby Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, and these will be subsumed by our own galaxy within the next few hundred million years. If events during galaxy formation are counted, there are probably very few galaxies that were not shaped by interactions or even outright mergers. The position of a galaxy in Edwin Hubble's famous morphological sequence of galaxies may in fact depend mainly on the number and severity of merger events in its past history. Pure disk spiral systems, formed from relatively isolated protogalactic gas clouds, appear at one end of the Hubble sequence. The giant ellipticals (spheroidal galaxies), possibly produced through mergers of similar spirals, appear at the other end. In between, mergers between galaxies of differing mass produce galaxies with a wide range of shapes and sizes. Arp 270 lies about 90 million light years away. The 'Mice' is the popular name for two interacting galaxies -- so-called because of their distinctive tails. They are officially known as NGC 4676 A, B or Arp 242, and lie about 290 million light years away. Markarian 266 is a pair of interacting galaxies located some 365 million light years from Earth. FURTHER INFORMATION AND IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB AT: http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/~amr/Chandra.html RAS Web site: http://www.ras.org.uk/ UK National Astronomy Meeting Web site: http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/nam/
