Substructure within clusters of galaxies

Abstract

Surface number density contour maps based on Dressler's (1976, 1980) studies of 65 rich clusters are presented to demonstrate the frequent occurrence of substructure in these dense systems. A prescription is given for examining the significance of such structure and it is shown that structure on scales equal to or larger than 0.24 Mpc (H0 = 100 km/s Mpc) is present in approximately 40% of the clusters in this sample. Many of the remaining clusters are elongated. The contour plots are useful for comparison with X-ray surface brightness maps. Together with available velocity data, they also serve warning that many rich clusters may not be simply characterized by a single core radius and velocity dispersion.