There may be a possible shock at r~20 kpc just ahead of the cold front," the paper reads. "The Chandra data revealed a cold front at r~10 kpc to the east of the center and an extended hot gas region toward the west. The new results indicate that the system is quite disturbed with an asymmetric hot halo, including a sharp edge to the east and extended emission to the west. The analysis revealed important details about NGC 1132's hot gas morphology. The spacecraft observed NGC 1132 in 19 with its Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS). Kim's team has analyzed archival data provided by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory as part of the Chandra Galaxy Atlas project. "We found that the hot gas is disturbed, in contrast to the conventional view that the hot halo in the fossil system would be relaxed and undisturbed," the researchers wrote in the paper. However, the new research presented by a team of researchers led by Dong-Woo Kim of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, suggests that NGC 1132's hot gas morphology is disturbed and asymmetrical, with a cold front following a possible bow shock. All in all, NGC 1132 is expected to be old and relaxed long after the giant elliptical galaxy assembly. It is also known to be a slow rotator with a core radial profile at the center, which is similar to typical old giant elliptical galaxies. Previous observations show that it has an extended X-ray luminous halo, as in other fossil groups. When it comes to NGC 1132, it is similar to other fossil groups. Such groups are believed to be the end result of galaxy merging within a normal galaxy group, leaving behind the X-ray halo of the progenitor group.
The so-called "fossil group" is an isolated elliptical galaxy embedded in an extended halo of X-ray emitting gas the size of a galaxy group. Located some 318 million light years away from the Earth, NGC 1132 is a well-known fossil galaxy group.
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