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Energy sources for X-ray cluster emission

Abstract

SOME galactic clusters are strong X-ray emitters1, and we here the problem of establishing certain models for the source of this radiation. In the first model we suppose that the X rays are thermal bremsstrahlung from a hot quasi-isothermal inter-cluster gas. Typical parameters for the temperature, particle density and total mass of the gas are2 T 3 × 108 K, n 10−3, M 3 × 1044 kg. If we assume3 relative nuclei solar abundances, then the thermal energy contained in the gas is ET 2 × 1064 erg. This is 10% of the total rest mass energy of a 1011 M galaxy and clearly poses a problem for potential energy sources.

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MORLEY, P., TUCKER, R. Energy sources for X-ray cluster emission. Nature 278, 235–236 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/278235a0

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