Stormy weather in galaxy clusters
Recent x-ray, optical, and radio observations coupled with particle and gas dynamics numerical simulations reveal an unexpectedly complex environment within clusters of galaxies, driven by ongoing accretion of matter from large-scale supercluster filaments. Mergers between clusters and continuous infall of dark matter and baryons from the cluster periphery produce long-lived "stormy weather" within the gaseous cluster atmosphere-shocks, turbulence, and winds of more than 1000 kilometers per second. This weather may be responsible for shaping a rich variety of extended radio sources, which in turn act as "barometers" and "anemometers" of cluster weather.
Burns
JO
The author is at the Office of Research, 205 Jesse Hall, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. E-mail: burns@research.missouri.edu.