posted on 2023-06-08, 12:42authored byPeter ThomasPeter Thomas, A C Fabian, K A Arnaud, W Forman, C Jones
The density profiles of the hot interstellar gas in 18 galaxies, mostly ellipticals, have been determined using X-ray data from the Einstein Observatory. Radiative cooling is important throughout most of this gas leading to mass-deposition rates of between 0.02 and 3 solar mass/yr. There are problems in determining the nature of the resultant cooling flows since these mass-deposition rates are significantly less than the expected injection of gas from stellar mass loss, and supernova heating is not accounted for. Possible solutions involving a multiphase medium and cooling outflows are suggested. Cooling flows in early-type galaxies have immediate implications for their chemical evolution, optical line emission, star formation, the behavior of cold disks, the activity of the nucleus and the confinement of radio jets.