Answer to Question #88419 in Astronomy | Astrophysics for Shivam Nishad

Question

Explain why we expect the gas in elliptical galaxies to be hot.

Answer 1

There are two main sources of hot gas in elliptical galaxies: internal and external. Evolving stars inside the elliptical galaxy continuously eject gas at a rate. It is generally assumed that gas ejected by or-biting red giant stars passes through shocks and is raised to the stellar kinematic temperature where is the molecular weight and is the stellar velocity dispersion.