your ID: 0279 
First Name: Yiping 
Last Name: Ao 
Affiliation: Purple Moutain Observatory 

Title: the SMA CO(2-1) observation towards Perseus A 
Authors: Yiping Ao, Jeremy Lim and Dinh Van Trung 
Topic: 7 
Session: poster 

Abstract: We have observed the central 55 arcsec (about 20 kpc) of 
Perseus A in CO(2-1) with the SMA. Per A is the dominant cD galaxy at the center of the Perseus Cluster, which is one of the 
richest known clusters of galaxies and is believed to have a strong X-ray cooling flow. Previous observations have revealed 
copious molecular gas in Per A, as well as in a number of other cD galaxies at the centers of rich clusters believed to harbour strong 
X-ray cooling flows (Edge 2001; Salome & Combes 2003). The origin of the molecular gas in all these galaxies, however, is highly 
uncertain: the gas could have condensed from the cooling flow, stripped from close encounters with gas-rich galaxies, or acquired 
from mergers with gas-rich galaxies. Here, we provide the first compelling evidence that (a large portion of) the molecular gas in 
Per A indeed originated from its X-ray cooling flow, and hence that X-ray cooling flows in rich galaxy clusters can indeed 
deposit large quantities of molecular gas.