Artist's Representation of Sound Waves Preventing a Cooling Flow in Perseus
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This graphic contains a series of three illustrations to show how a "cooling flow" in the Perseus cluster, and the resulting star formation, is prevented by sound waves generated by the central black hole. The hot, X-ray emitting gas that fills the cluster is shown in red. Next, the gas near the center of the cluster radiates energy and cools, which is shown as blue. The third frame shows heating by the sound waves, shown in yellow, preventing further cooling of the gas. This stops the inward flow of gas expected in a cooling flow, preventing new star formation.
[Run Time: 8 sec]
Illustrations: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss