[TG2002] 18 , the SIMBAD biblio

The excellent quality of the Chandra observation of NGC 5846 reveals a complex X-ray morphology of the central regions of this galaxy. An intriguing morphological similarity between the X-ray and the optical line emission, discovered before using ROSAT HRI images (Trinchieri et al., 1997A&A...326..565T, 1997A&A...318..361T), is confirmed here in unprecedented detail. Complex spectral characteristics are associated with the morphological peculiarities, indicating a possibly turbulent gas in this object. A population of ∼40 individual sources is also observed, with L_x in the range ∼3x10³⁸-2x10³⁹erg/s, with an X-ray luminosity function that is steeper in the high-luminosity end than in other early-type galaxies.