Chemical enrichment in groups and clusters

Understand

As building blocks of dust, rocky planets, and even complex life, the chemical elements heavier than hydrogen (H) and helium (He) - called "metals" in astronomy - play an essential role in our Universe and its evolution.

• Up to Fe and Ni, these metals are known to be created by stars and stellar remnants via nuclear fusion and to be ejected into their immediate surroundings to enrich new stellar generations.
• A spectacular finding, however, is that these processed elements are found even outside stellar systems, in particular in the hot, X-ray atmospheres surrounding early-type galaxies and pervading galaxy clusters and groups.
• These large-scales structures are thus a remarkable fossil record of the integrated history of the enrichment of our Universe.