Journal article

A massive, cooling-flow-induced starburst in the core of a luminous cluster of galaxies

M McDonald, M Bayliss, BA Benson, RJ Foley, J Ruel, P Sullivan, S Veilleux, KA Aird, MLN Ashby, M Bautz, G Bazin, LE Bleem, M Brodwin, JE Carlstrom, CL Chang, HM Cho, A Clocchiatti, TM Crawford, AT Crites, T De Haan Show all

Nature | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2012

Abstract

In the cores of some clusters of galaxies the hot intracluster plasma is dense enough that it should cool radiatively in the clusters lifetime, leading to continuous cooling flows of gas sinking towards the cluster centre, yet no such cooling flow has been observed. The low observed star-formation rates and cool gas masses for these cool-core clusters suggest that much of the cooling must be offset by feedback to prevent the formation of a runaway cooling flow. Here we report X-ray, optical and infrared observations of the galaxy cluster SPT-CLJ2344-4243 (ref. 11) at redshift z = 0.596. These observations reveal an exceptionally luminous (8.2Ã-10 45 ergs-1) galaxy cluster that hosts an extre..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Funding Acknowledgements

M.McD. was supported at MIT by NASA through the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The South Pole Telescope is supported by the National Science Foundation, with partial support provided by the Kavli Foundation, and the Moore Foundation. Support for X-ray analysis was provided by NASA. Work at McGill University is supported by NSERC, the CRC programme, and CIfAR, and at Harvard University by the NSF. S. V. acknowledges a Senior NPP Award held at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. R. K. acknowledges a NASA Hubble Fellowship, B. A. B. acknowledges a KICP Fellowship, M. A. D. acknowledges an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and O.Z. acknowledges a BCCP fellowship.