ASCA SPECTRA OF THE X-RAY FAINT S0 GALAXY NGC-4382

NGC 4382 is one of the E and SO galaxies detected with the lowest X-ra y-to-optical luminosity ratio. These galaxies have a peculiar X-ray (0 .1-3 keV) spectrum, with a significant excess of counts in the lowest spectral channels (<1 keV) relative to the spectral count distribution s of X-ray brighter E and S0 galaxies. Analyzing the ROSAT Position Se nsitive Proportional Counter observations of NGC 4382, it was unclear whether this soft excess were due to a real very soft component in a m ulticomponent spectrum or reflected an extremely low metal abundance i n a isothermal hot gas. Our ASCA observations show that the low-abunda nce single-temperature model does not fit well the X-ray spectrum, in agreement with our previous suggestions. A better explanation is a com posite spectrum with a very soft component (similar to 0.3 keV) in add ition to a hard, likely stellar, component (similar to 5 keV). In this model, the abundance cannot be constrained. However, other more compl ex spectral models cannot be excluded.