At present, the only group known to be in the process of converting cold gasinto a hot X-ray emitting intra-group medium and thus starving star-formation inits member galaxies is Stephan.s Quintet. The NGC 5903/ NGC 5898 group may bethe second example. It contains a 100kpc HI filament and a 65kpc diameterdiffuse radio structure which appear to be anti-correlated. A bright ridge inthe radio structure may be a shock driven by a galaxy/HI collision, as inStephan.s Quintet. Alternatively the radio emission may be a remnant of old AGNactivity, but in either case the group should be X-ray luminous. A short (50ks)XMM observation will allow us to discriminate between the two scenarios, andexamine how groups form and maintain their hot intra-group medium.
Instrument
EMOS1, EMOS2, EPN, OM, RGS1, RGS2
Temporal Coverage
2013-07-30T14:48:05Z/2013-07-31T05:31:25Z
Version
17.56_20190403_1200
Mission Description
The European Space Agencys (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) was launched by an Ariane 504 on December 10th 1999. XMM-Newton is ESAs second cornerstone of the Horizon 2000 Science Programme. It carries 3 high throughput X-ray telescopes with an unprecedented effective area, and an optical monitor, the first flown on a X-ray observatory. The large collecting area and ability to make long uninterrupted exposures provide highly sensitive observations. Since Earths atmosphere blocks out all X-rays, only a telescope in space can detect and study celestial X-ray sources. The XMM-Newton mission is helping scientists to solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself. Observing time on XMM-Newton is being made available to the scientific community, applying for observational periods on a competitive basis.
European Space Agency, Dr Ewan O'Sullivan, 2014, 'The origin of the diffuse radio structure around NGC 5903', 17.56_20190403_1200, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-k3s0jmp
