We present the first X-ray observations of the Taffy galaxies ( UGC 12914/5 ) with the Chandra observatory , and detect soft X-ray emission in the region of the gas-rich , radio-continuum-emitting Taffy bridge .
The results are compared to Herschel observations of dust and diffuse [ CII ] line-emitting gas .
The diffuse component of the Taffy bridge has an X-ray luminosity of L _ { X ( 0.5 - 8 keV ) } = 5.4 \times 10 ^ { 39 } erg s ^ { -1 } , which accounts for 19 \% of the luminosity of the sum for the two galaxies .
The total mass in hot gas is ( 0.8–1.3 ) \times 10 ^ { 8 } M _ { \odot } , which is approximately 1 \% of the total ( HI + H _ { 2 } ) gas mass in the bridge , and \sim 11 \% of the mass of warm molecular hydrogen discovered by Spitzer .
The soft X-ray and dense CO-emitting gas in the bridge have offset distributions , with the X-rays peaking along the north-western side of the bridge in the region where stronger far-IR dust and diffuse [ CII ] gas is observed by Herschel .
We detect nine Ultra Luminous X-ray sources ( ULXs ) in the system , the brightest of which is found in the bridge , associated with an extragalactic HII region .
We suggest that the X-ray–emitting gas has been shocked–heated to high temperatures and ” splashed ” into the bridge by the collision .
The large amount of gas stripped from the galaxies into the bridge and its very long gas depletion timescale ( > 10 Gyr ) may explain why this system , unlike most major mergers , is not a powerful IR emitter .