A Chandra observation of the intermediate luminosity ( M _ { B } = -20 ) elliptical galaxy NGC 3379 resolves 75 % of the X-ray emission within the central 5 kpc into point sources .
Spectral analysis of the remaining unresolved emission within the central 770 pc indicates that 90 % of the emission probably arises from undetected point sources , while 10 % arises from thermal emission from kT = 0.6 keV gas .
Assuming a uniform density distribution in the central region of the galaxy gives a gas mass of 5 \times 10 ^ { 5 } { M } _ { \odot } .
Such a small amount of gas can be supplied by stellar mass loss in only 10 ^ { 7 } years .
Thus , the gas must be accreting into the central supermassive black hole at a very low radiative efficiency as in the ADAF or RIAF models , or is being expelled in a galactic wind driven by the same AGN feedback mechanism as that observed in cluster cooling flows .
If the gas is being expelled in an AGN driven wind , then the ratio of mechanical to radio power of the AGN must be 10 ^ { 4 } , which is comparable to that measured in cluster cooling flows which have recently been perturbed by radio outbursts .
Only 8 % of the detected point sources are coincident with globular cluster positions , which is significantly less than that found among other ellipticals observed by Chandra .
The low specific frequency of globular clusters and the small fraction of X-ray point sources associated with globulars in NGC 3379 is more similar to the properties of lenticular galaxies rather than ellipticals .

The brightest point source in NGC 3379 is located 360 pc from the central AGN with a peak luminosity of 3.5 \times 10 ^ { 39 } ergs s ^ { -1 } , which places it in the class of ultra-luminous X-ray point sources ( ULX ) .
Analysis of an archival ROSAT HRI observation of NGC 3379 shows that this source was at a comparable luminosity 5 years prior to the Chandra observation .
The spectrum of the ULX is well described by a power-law model with \Gamma = 1.6 \pm 0.3 and galactic absorption , similar to other ULXs observed by Chandra and XMM-Newton and to the low-hard state observed in galactic black hole binaries .
During the Chandra observation , the source intensity smoothly varies by a factor of two with the suggestion of an 8-10 hour period .
No changes in hardness ratio are detected as the intensity of the source varies .
While periodic behavior has recently been detected in several ULXs , all of these reside within spiral galaxies .
The ULX in NGC 3379 is the only known ULX in an elliptical galaxy with a smoothly varying light curve suggestive of an eclipsing binary system .