Revealing the Interaction between the X‐Ray Gas of Starburst Galaxy UGC 6697 and the Hot Intracluster Medium of A1367

Abstract

We present the result from a Chandra observation of an X-ray-luminousstarburst galaxy, UGC 6697, which is embedded in the northwest hotregion of A1367 (5-6 keV). A very sharp X-ray edge (~13-fold surfacebrightness jump) at the southeast and a long tail (at least 60 kpc fromthe nucleus) at the northwest of the galaxy are detected, as expected ifthe galaxy is moving to the southeast. The X-ray edge, at the midway ofthe nucleus and the southeast optical disk edge, is also at the sameposition where the H{α} emission is truncated and a radio sharp edgeis observed. The X-ray diffuse emission is also enhanced at thesoutheast, implying ram pressure compression. No extraplanar X-raycomponent is detected, probably because of the combining effects ofweaker outflow activity than that in nuclear starbursts, and externalconfinement plus stripping. The diffuse thermal gas in UGC 6697 has atemperature of ~0.7 keV and a low iron abundance (~0.1-0.2 solar). AnX-ray point source (L_{0.5-10keV}~2.8{\times}10^{40} ergss^{-1}) is detected on the nucleus, but not highly absorbed.Three off-center ultraluminous X-ray sources, all withL_{0.5-10keV}{\gt}10^{40} ergs s^{-1}, are alsodetected. Based on the multiwavelength data available, we favor that theinteraction between the interstellar medium and the intracluster mediumplays a major role in triggering the starburst in UGC 6697.