BeppoSAX observation of the rich cluster of galaxies Abell 85

Abstract

We report the observation of the Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) of Abell 85 by the X-ray satellite Bep- poSAX. We have both analysed the spectrum obtained in the central 8 arcmin circular region centred on the Very Steep Spectrum Radio Source (VSSRS) and the spec- tra from a number of sub-regions. Analysis of the spec- tra allowed us to independently obtain new estimates of the temperature, metallicity and line-of-sight hydro- gen density column, both globally (T = 6.6 ± 0.3 keV, Z = 0.38 ± 0.06Z⊙ and NH = 5.5+0.9 −0.71020cm−2) and lo- cally. These measures are in good agreement with previ- ous measures based on ROSAT and ASCA data. In the region of the VSRSS, we have tried to disentangle the thermal from the non-thermal X-ray emission. Although we could not do this unambiguously, we have nonethe- less estimated the extended magnetic field using the radio spectrum available for this region.We obtain a lower limit intensity of 0.9µG, consistent with our previous estimate. We also derive α-elements/iron abundance ratios that turn out to be higher than 1. Such a result tends to support the burst model for elliptical galaxies, where a strong galac- tic wind develops early in the galaxy history and type II supernovae (SN) may have the main role in the enrich- ment of the ICM. A two-temperature ICM model was fit- ted in the central region yielding a main component with roughly the mean cluster temperature and a cooler com- ponent with temperature less than 0.1 keV.