We report the detection of 1WGA J1226.9 + 3332 as an arcminute scale extended X-ray source with the Chandra X-ray Observatory .
The Chandra observation and R and K band imaging strongly support the identification of 1WGA J1226.9 + 3332 as a high redshift cluster of galaxies , most probably at z = 0.85 \pm 0.15 , with an inferred temperature kT = 10 ^ { +4 } _ { -3 } keV and an unabsorbed luminosity ( in a r = 120 ^ { \prime \prime } aperture ) of 1.3 ^ { +0.16 } _ { -0.14 } \times 10 ^ { 45 } erg s ^ { -1 } ( 0.5-10 keV ) .
This indication of redshift is also supported by the K and R band imaging , and is in agreement with the spectroscopic redshift of 0.89 found by Ebeling et al .
( 2001 ) .
The surface brightness profile is consistent with a \beta -model with \beta = 0.770 \pm 0.025 , r _ { c } = ( 18.1 \pm 0.9 ) ^ { \prime \prime } ( corresponding to 101 \pm 5 kpc at z = 0.89 ) , and S ( 0 ) = 1.02 \pm 0.08 counts arcsec ^ { -2 } .
1WGA J1226.9 + 3332 was selected as an extreme X-ray loud source with F _ { X } / F _ { V } > 60 ; this selection method , thanks to the large area sampled , seems to be a highly efficient method for finding luminous high z clusters of galaxies .