ASCA Observations of a Nearby and Massive

The results obtained from ASCA observations of the cluster of galaxies Abell 3627 are presented. This cluster, located behind the Milky Way, was recently found to be a nearby, X-ray bright and very rich cluster. Pointed observations onto the central region of the cluster gave a gas temperature of � 7 keV and a metallicity of about 0.2 solar. An offset pointing to a substructure elongated to the south-east of the cluster center gave a significantly lower temperature of � 5 keV. The 2–10 keV luminosity within a radius of 40 ′ (1.1 Mpc) is estimated to be 3.7×10 44 erg s −1 . The X-ray data imply a cluster mass of about 4×10 14 M⊙ within 40 ′ .