An XMM-Newton Early-type Galaxy Atlas

TL;DR

This paper presents an atlas of X-ray observations of 38 early-type galaxies, providing spatially resolved spectral maps to study their hot gas halos and evolutionary processes.

Contribution

It introduces the XMM-Newton Galaxy Atlas, offering detailed 2D spectral maps and analysis of galaxy features related to feedback and environmental effects.

Findings

Asymmetric distribution of metal-enriched gas in NGC 4636 and NGC 1550.

Evidence of sloshing and AGN-driven uplift affecting gas distribution.

The atlas will be publicly available for further research.

Abstract

The distribution of hot interstellar medium in early-type galaxies bears the imprint of the various astrophysical processes it underwent during its evolution. The X-ray observations of these galaxies have identified various structural features related to AGN and stellar feedback and environmental effects such as merging and sloshing. In our XMM-Newton Galaxy Atlas (NGA) project, we analyze archival observations of 38 ETGs, utilizing the high sensitivity and large field of view of XMM-Newton to construct spatially resolved 2D spectral maps of the hot gas halos. To illustrate our NGA data products in conjunction with the Chandra Galaxy Atlas (Kim et al. 2019), we describe two distinct galaxies - NGC 4636 and NGC 1550, in detail. We discuss their evolutionary history with a particular focus on the asymmetric distribution of metal-enriched, low-entropy gas caused by sloshing and AGN- driven uplift. We will release the NGA data products to a dedicated website, which users can download to perform further analyses.