A Deep X-ray View of the Hot Halo in the Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 891

TL;DR

This study uses X-ray observations to analyze the hot halo of NGC 891, finding low metallicity consistent with accretion from intergalactic medium, and discusses implications for galaxy halo origins.

Contribution

First measurement of the hot halo's metallicity in NGC 891 using combined Chandra and XMM-Newton data, supporting accretion origin over galactic fountain models.

Findings

Hot halo has temperature ~0.2 keV and metallicity ~0.1 solar.

Solar metallicity models are statistically ruled out.

Cooling rate and scale height favor a single-temperature, low-metallicity model.

Abstract

NGC 891 is a nearby edge-on galaxy that is similar to the Milky Way and has a hot X-ray emitting halo that could arise from accretion, a galactic fountain, or a combination of the two. The metallicity of the gas can help distinguish between these models, and here we report on results that use 138 ks of archival Chandra data and 92 ks of new XMM-Newton data to measure the temperature and metallicity of the hot halo of the galaxy. We find good fits for a thermal model with kT ~ 0.2 keV and Z ~ 0.1 solar, and rule out solar metallicity to more than 99% confidence. This result suggests accretion from the intergalactic medium as the origin for the hot halo. However, it is also possible to fit a two-temperature thermal model with solar metallicity where kT_1 = 0.1 keV and kT_2 = 0.25 keV. A consideration of the cooling rate and scale height prefers the single-temperature model. We also find that the cooling rate in the hot gas cannot explain the massive HI halo in the steady state. In addition, a galactic fountain model cannot eject enough mass to account for the HI halo, and we speculate that the neutral halo may be gas from a prior outflow that has since cooled.