A Chandra X-ray view of Stephan's Quintet: Shocks and Star-formation

TL;DR

This study uses deep Chandra X-ray observations to analyze the hot gas and shock phenomena in Stephan's Quintet, linking gas properties to star formation and group dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the nature of shocks, gas heating, and star formation processes in Stephan's Quintet through detailed X-ray analysis.

Findings

Gas in the ridge has similar temperature and abundance to surrounding emission.

Star formation rate is consistent with gas cooling rate in the ridge.

Hot gas is largely from previous interactions, not current shock heating.

Abstract

We use a deep Chandra observation to examine the structure of the hot intra-group medium of the compact group of galaxies Stephan's Quintet. The group is thought to be undergoing a strong dynamical interaction as an interloper, NGC 7318b, passes through the group core at ~850 km/s. A bright ridge of X-ray and radio continuum emission has been interpreted as the result of shock heating, with support from observations at other wavelengths. We find that gas in this ridge has a similar temperature (~0.6 keV) and abundance (~0.3 solar) to the surrounding diffuse emission, and that a hard emission component is consistent with that expected from high-mass X-ray binaries associated with star-formation in the ridge. The cooling rate of gas in the ridge is consistent with the current star formation rate, suggesting that radiative cooling is driving the observed star formation. The lack of a high-temperature gas component is used to place constraints on the nature of the interaction and shock, and we find that an oblique shock heating a pre-existing filament of HI may be the most likely explanation of the X-ray gas in the ridge. The mass of hot gas in the ridge is only ~2 per cent of the total mass of hot gas in the group, which is roughly equal to the deficit in observed HI mass compared to predictions. The hot gas component is too extended to have been heated by the current interaction, strongly suggesting that it must have been heated during previous dynamical encounters.