Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster

Michael Reefe; Michael McDonald; Marios Chatzikos; Jerome Seebeck; Richard Mushotzky; Sylvain Veilleux; Steven W. Allen; Matthew Bayliss; Michael Calzadilla; Rebecca Canning; Benjamin Floyd; Massimo Gaspari; Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo; Brian McNamara; Helen Russell; Keren Sharon; Taweewat Somboonpanyakul

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08369-x

Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster

Michael Reefe, Michael McDonald, Marios Chatzikos, Jerome Seebeck, Richard Mushotzky, Sylvain Veilleux, Steven W. Allen, Matthew Bayliss, Michael Calzadilla, Rebecca Canning, Benjamin Floyd, Massimo Gaspari, Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo, Brian McNamara, Helen Russell, Keren Sharon, Taweewat Somboonpanyakul

Physics And Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the centres of many galaxy clusters, the hot (approximately 10⁷ kelvin) intracluster medium can become dense enough that it should cool on short timescales^1,2. However, the low measured star formation rates in massive central galaxies^{3, 4, 5–6} and the absence of soft X-ray lines from the cooling gas^{7, 8–9} suggest that most of this gas never cools. This is known as the cooling flow problem. The latest observations suggest that black hole jets are maintaining the vast majority of gas at high temperatures^{10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15–16}. A cooling flow has yet to be fully mapped through all the gas phases in any galaxy cluster. Here we present observations of the Phoenix cluster¹⁷ using the James Webb Space Telescope to map the [Ne vi] λ 7.652-μm emission line, enabling us to probe the gas at 10^5.5 kelvin on large scales. These data show extended [Ne vi] emission that is cospatial with the cooling peak in the intracluster medium, the coolest gas phases and the sites of active star formation. Taken together, these imply a recent episode of rapid cooling, causing a short-lived spike in the cooling rate, which we estimate to be 5,000–23,000 solar masses per year. These data provide a large-scale map of gas at temperatures between 10⁵ kelvin and 10⁶ kelvin in a cluster core, and highlight the critical role that black hole feedback has in not only regulating cooling but also promoting it¹⁸.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	360-364
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature
Volume	638
Issue number	8050
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08369-x
State	Published - Feb 13 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2025.

Funding

This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract number NAS 5-03127. Support for programme number JWST-GO-02439.001-A was provided through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute under NASA contract number NAS 5-03127. This work is also based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA HST obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract number NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programme number GO15315. Support for this work was also provided by NASA through Chandra award number GO7-18124 issued by Chandra, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of NASA under contract number NAS8-03060. M.R. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant number 2141064. M.G. acknowledges support from the ERC Consolidator Grant BlackHoleWeather (101086804). M. Chatzikos acknowledges support from NSF (1910687) and NASA (19-ATP19-0188 and 22-ADAP22-0139). H.R. acknowledges an Anne McLaren Fellowship from the University of Nottingham. We thank the members of the MIRI/MRS instrument team, particularly D.L., for providing advice and guidance in reducing and cleaning the MIRI/MRS data. This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract number NAS 5-03127. Support for programme number JWST-GO-02439.001-A was provided through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute under NASA contract number NAS 5-03127. This work is also based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA HST obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract number NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programme number GO15315. Support for this work was also provided by NASA through Chandra award number GO7-18124 issued by Chandra, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of NASA under contract number NAS8-03060. M.R. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant number 2141064. M.G. acknowledges support from the ERC Consolidator Grant BlackHoleWeather (101086804). M. Chatzikos acknowledges support from NSF (1910687) and NASA (19-ATP19-0188 and 22-ADAP22-0139). H.R. acknowledges an Anne McLaren Fellowship from the University of Nottingham. We thank the members of the MIRI/MRS instrument team, particularly D.L., for providing advice and guidance in reducing and cleaning the MIRI/MRS data.

Funders	Funder number
Nottingham Trent University
Colorado State Archives
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NAS 5-03127
Space Telescope Science Institute	GO15315
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	1910687, 2141064, 22-ADAP22-0139, 19-ATP19-0188
Engineering Research Centers	101086804
Not added	ST/X000982/1
Epsilon Sigma Alpha	NAS 5-26555, NAS8-03060, GO7-18124

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Reefe, M., McDonald, M., Chatzikos, M., Seebeck, J., Mushotzky, R., Veilleux, S., Allen, S. W., Bayliss, M., Calzadilla, M., Canning, R., Floyd, B., Gaspari, M., Hlavacek-Larrondo, J., McNamara, B., Russell, H., Sharon, K., & Somboonpanyakul, T. (2025). Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster. Nature, 638(8050), 360-364. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08369-x

@article{a87adc9b99e141488673c06053e4b4cd,

title = "Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster",

abstract = "In the centres of many galaxy clusters, the hot (approximately 107 kelvin) intracluster medium can become dense enough that it should cool on short timescales1,2. However, the low measured star formation rates in massive central galaxies3, 4, 5–6 and the absence of soft X-ray lines from the cooling gas7, 8–9 suggest that most of this gas never cools. This is known as the cooling flow problem. The latest observations suggest that black hole jets are maintaining the vast majority of gas at high temperatures10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15–16. A cooling flow has yet to be fully mapped through all the gas phases in any galaxy cluster. Here we present observations of the Phoenix cluster17 using the James Webb Space Telescope to map the [Ne vi] λ 7.652-μm emission line, enabling us to probe the gas at 105.5 kelvin on large scales. These data show extended [Ne vi] emission that is cospatial with the cooling peak in the intracluster medium, the coolest gas phases and the sites of active star formation. Taken together, these imply a recent episode of rapid cooling, causing a short-lived spike in the cooling rate, which we estimate to be 5,000–23,000 solar masses per year. These data provide a large-scale map of gas at temperatures between 105 kelvin and 106 kelvin in a cluster core, and highlight the critical role that black hole feedback has in not only regulating cooling but also promoting it18.",

author = "Michael Reefe and Michael McDonald and Marios Chatzikos and Jerome Seebeck and Richard Mushotzky and Sylvain Veilleux and Allen, \{Steven W.\} and Matthew Bayliss and Michael Calzadilla and Rebecca Canning and Benjamin Floyd and Massimo Gaspari and Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo and Brian McNamara and Helen Russell and Keren Sharon and Taweewat Somboonpanyakul",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2025.",

year = "2025",

month = feb,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-024-08369-x",

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Reefe, M, McDonald, M, Chatzikos, M, Seebeck, J, Mushotzky, R, Veilleux, S, Allen, SW, Bayliss, M, Calzadilla, M, Canning, R, Floyd, B, Gaspari, M, Hlavacek-Larrondo, J, McNamara, B, Russell, H, Sharon, K & Somboonpanyakul, T 2025, 'Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster', Nature, vol. 638, no. 8050, pp. 360-364. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08369-x

TY - JOUR

T1 - Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster

AU - Reefe, Michael

AU - McDonald, Michael

AU - Chatzikos, Marios

AU - Seebeck, Jerome

AU - Mushotzky, Richard

AU - Veilleux, Sylvain

AU - Allen, Steven W.

AU - Bayliss, Matthew

AU - Calzadilla, Michael

AU - Canning, Rebecca

AU - Floyd, Benjamin

AU - Gaspari, Massimo

AU - Hlavacek-Larrondo, Julie

AU - McNamara, Brian

AU - Russell, Helen

AU - Sharon, Keren

AU - Somboonpanyakul, Taweewat

PY - 2025/2/13

Y1 - 2025/2/13

N2 - In the centres of many galaxy clusters, the hot (approximately 107 kelvin) intracluster medium can become dense enough that it should cool on short timescales1,2. However, the low measured star formation rates in massive central galaxies3, 4, 5–6 and the absence of soft X-ray lines from the cooling gas7, 8–9 suggest that most of this gas never cools. This is known as the cooling flow problem. The latest observations suggest that black hole jets are maintaining the vast majority of gas at high temperatures10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15–16. A cooling flow has yet to be fully mapped through all the gas phases in any galaxy cluster. Here we present observations of the Phoenix cluster17 using the James Webb Space Telescope to map the [Ne vi] λ 7.652-μm emission line, enabling us to probe the gas at 105.5 kelvin on large scales. These data show extended [Ne vi] emission that is cospatial with the cooling peak in the intracluster medium, the coolest gas phases and the sites of active star formation. Taken together, these imply a recent episode of rapid cooling, causing a short-lived spike in the cooling rate, which we estimate to be 5,000–23,000 solar masses per year. These data provide a large-scale map of gas at temperatures between 105 kelvin and 106 kelvin in a cluster core, and highlight the critical role that black hole feedback has in not only regulating cooling but also promoting it18.

AB - In the centres of many galaxy clusters, the hot (approximately 107 kelvin) intracluster medium can become dense enough that it should cool on short timescales1,2. However, the low measured star formation rates in massive central galaxies3, 4, 5–6 and the absence of soft X-ray lines from the cooling gas7, 8–9 suggest that most of this gas never cools. This is known as the cooling flow problem. The latest observations suggest that black hole jets are maintaining the vast majority of gas at high temperatures10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15–16. A cooling flow has yet to be fully mapped through all the gas phases in any galaxy cluster. Here we present observations of the Phoenix cluster17 using the James Webb Space Telescope to map the [Ne vi] λ 7.652-μm emission line, enabling us to probe the gas at 105.5 kelvin on large scales. These data show extended [Ne vi] emission that is cospatial with the cooling peak in the intracluster medium, the coolest gas phases and the sites of active star formation. Taken together, these imply a recent episode of rapid cooling, causing a short-lived spike in the cooling rate, which we estimate to be 5,000–23,000 solar masses per year. These data provide a large-scale map of gas at temperatures between 105 kelvin and 106 kelvin in a cluster core, and highlight the critical role that black hole feedback has in not only regulating cooling but also promoting it18.

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SP - 360

EP - 364

JO - Nature

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ER -

Directly imaging the cooling flow in the Phoenix cluster

Abstract

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