PAPERS |
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I am a Royal Society University Research
Fellow in the Extragalactic
Astronomy group of the Department of Physics at Durham University. My research
concentrates on clusters of galaxies from an X-ray prespective.
Selecting clusters on the basis of their X-ray luminosity ensures
that the objects are massive and well-relaxed. In many cases these
clusters are relatively dense in their cores and the resulting
strong X-ray emission causes all the thermal energy of the gas
to be radiated away. This phenonemon is termed a "Cooling Flow".
The clear and unescapable conclusion from the X-ray observations
is that there is a substantial mass of gas that has cooled
but relatively little of this 'sink' has been found.
HST STUDY OF CENTRAL CLUSTER GALAXIES
A (very) false-color Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 image of the central galaxy in A2261. This central galaxy is highly unusual in having
a low surface brightness core but several high surface brightness nuclei. The central galaxy
shows no optical emission lines but lies in the core of a strong cooling flow. This image
was obtained as part of a HST SNAPSHOT program to determine the detailed
optical mophology of a complete sample of high optical line luminosity
systems and a control sample of optically dull central galaxies
(see HST Programs 8301
and 8719).
In total 52 snapshots have been taken and they can be found in my ftp area.
ROSAT ALL-SKY SURVEY
Much of my work has been based on data from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey.
From work
with Harald Ebeling
and Pat Henry (IfA, Hawaii), we have found a large sample (>110) distant (z>0.3)
clusters from this sample (the MACS sample).
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Last Modified: October 16th 2002. [Netscape 4.5]
This page owes a great deal to the efforts of Ian Smail whose
home page I have ruthlessly ripped off ( look for
yourself!).
Alastair Edge, Alastair.Edge@durham.ac.uk
Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE
Tel: +44-191-334-3792 / FAX: +44-191-334-3645
