Chandra Observations of NGC 4569: X-Rays from a Large Interacting Spiral Galaxy in the Virgo Cluster

Shanil Virani (Yale University) , Jeff Kenney (Yale), Christine Jones (CfA), and Bill Forman (CfA)

We present results from a 30 ks Chandra-S observation of NGC 4569, a large spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster core currently undergoing ram-pressure stripping. We detect X-ray emission on three scales: emission from a central compact core likely from a low luminosity AGN, soft diffuse emission just outside of the core which has a ``horseshoe''-like morphology, and emission on 4' scales that is associated with the star-forming disk. The soft diffuse X-ray gas just outside of the core closely traces H-filaments and is likely associated with a nuclear outflow from either an AGN or a starburst. Spectral fits performed on data extracted from the central 2" are best-fit using a power law model with a photon slope of 1.8 ±0.2, consistent with the typical indices found for AGNs detected with Chandra and XMM-Newton. Spectral fits performed on data extracted from the central 35" and excluding the central 2", are best-fit using a collionsionally ionized plasma model (MEKAL) with a temperature of 0.63 ±0.04 keV. The detection of an AGN in NGC 4569 resolves a long-standing controversy in the literature on whether the X-ray emission from the core is from an AGN or from a compact starburst.