TY - JOUR
T1 - A NuSTAR observation of the center of the coma cluster
AU - Gastaldello, Fabio
AU - Wik, Daniel R.
AU - Molendi, S.
AU - Westergaard, Niels Jørgen Stenfeldt
AU - Hornstrup, Allan
AU - Madejski, G.
AU - Ferreira, Desiree Della Monica
AU - Boggs, S. E.
AU - Christensen, Finn Erland
AU - Craig, W. W.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - We present the results of a 55 ks NuSTAR observation of the core of the Coma Cluster. The global spectrum can be explained by thermal gas emission, with a conservative 90% upper limit to non-thermal inverse Compton (IC) emission of 5.1 × 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1 in a 12' × 12' field of view. The brightness of the thermal component in this central region does not allow more stringent upper limits on the IC component when compared with non-imaging instruments with much larger fields of view where claims of detections have been made. Future mosaic NuSTAR observations of Coma will further address this issue. The temperature map shows a relatively uniform temperature distribution with a gradient from the hot northwest side to the cooler southeast, in agreement with previous measurements. The temperature determination is robust given the flat effective area and low background in the 3-20 keV band, making NuSTAR an ideal instrument to measure high temperatures in the intracluster medium.
AB - We present the results of a 55 ks NuSTAR observation of the core of the Coma Cluster. The global spectrum can be explained by thermal gas emission, with a conservative 90% upper limit to non-thermal inverse Compton (IC) emission of 5.1 × 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1 in a 12' × 12' field of view. The brightness of the thermal component in this central region does not allow more stringent upper limits on the IC component when compared with non-imaging instruments with much larger fields of view where claims of detections have been made. Future mosaic NuSTAR observations of Coma will further address this issue. The temperature map shows a relatively uniform temperature distribution with a gradient from the hot northwest side to the cooler southeast, in agreement with previous measurements. The temperature determination is robust given the flat effective area and low background in the 3-20 keV band, making NuSTAR an ideal instrument to measure high temperatures in the intracluster medium.
KW - Galaxies: clusters: general
KW - Galaxies: clusters: individual (Coma)
KW - X-rays: galaxies: clusters
U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/800/2/139
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/800/2/139
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 800
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 139
ER -