AST-557beginner

The Intracluster Medium: Structures & Vocabulary

Most ordinary matter in a rich galaxy cluster is not locked in stars; it resides in a diffuse, extremely hot ionized plasma called the intracluster medium. The intracluster medium measures cluster mass and thermodynamic history, reveals feedback from central black holes, and provides cosmological probes relatively independent of optical light.

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The Intracluster Medium: Structures & Vocabulary

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AST-556The Intracluster Medium: Foundations→

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AST-558The Intracluster Medium: Physical Mechanisms→

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Most ordinary matter in a rich galaxy cluster is not locked in stars; it resides in a diffuse, extremely hot ionized plasma called the intracluster medium.

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Gas falling into the cluster's deep gravitational potential is shock-heated.

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X-ray telescopes map gas temperature and density, microwave observations measure the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich signal, and spectra reveal metals injected by generations of stars and supernovae.