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R. Lieu, J.P.D. Mittaz, S. Bowyer, F.J. Lockman, C.-Y. Hwang, J.H.M.M. Schmitt
An observation of M87, the central galaxy of the Virgo cluster, was performed by the Deep Survey (DS) telescope aboard EUVE, in the 0.065-0.245 keV energy band. A central source and an extended emission halo of radius ~20 arcmin are clearly visible in the data, and represent the first detection of cluster gas emission in the EUV. The emission cannot be explained by the well-known cluster gas (Fabricant & Gorenstein 1983; Forman, Jones, & DeFaccio 1985; Stewart et al. 1984a; Bohringer et al. 1994) at X-ray temperatures. Instead, it is necessary to introduce a second gas component, with temperature between 5E+5 K and 1E+6 K. The rapid cooling of plasmas at such temperatures implies a mass accretion rate of > 300 M_solar per year. It is unlikely that the phenomenon is directly related to a cooling flow, which involves a much lower accretion rate of ~10 M_solar per year.
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