The unusual X-ray morphology of NGC 4636: cavities, off-center outbursts and shocks revealed by deep Chandra observations
Alessandro Baldi (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) , W. Forman (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), C. Jones (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), R. Kraft (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), P. Nulsen (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), L. David (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
We present the analysis of 200 ksec of Chandra observations of the X-ray luminous elliptical galaxy NGC 4636, located in the outskirts of the Virgo cluster. A soft band (0.5-2 keV) image confirms the presence of a bright core in the center surrounded by an extended X-ray halo and two prominent, quasi-symmetric, 8 kpc long, arm-like features. In addition, faint structures, possibly cavities, are visible outside the core suggesting a more complex history than previous observations. We present surface brightness and temperature profiles of these structures. We show that the edges of at least three of these features are sharp and are characterized by temperature jumps of about 20-25