X-ray studies of galactic and intergalactic gas in the Pegasus I cluster

Einstein Observatory IPC observations of Pegasus I show hot gas in a low density intergalactic medium as well as in a galactic medium within each of the dominant elliptical galaxies, NGC 7619 and NGC 7626. The short central cooling times inferred, of 100 million years or less, suggest that the galaxies contain cooling flows of about 1 solar mass/yr. The intergalactic gas, which is about 5 times less dense than in the least dense of the known Abell clusters, is incapable of stripping the hot gas from the elliptical galaxies or the neutral gas from the spirals. The gas around NGC 7619 appears to be influencing one of the radio lobes of NGC 7626.