Chandra detection of massive black holes in galactic cooling flows

Anticipating forthcoming Chandra X-ray observations, we describe the contin uation of interstellar cooling flows deep into the cores of elliptical gala xies. Interstellar gas heated to T > 1 keV in the potential of massive blac k holes (r less than or similar to 50 pc) should be visible unless thermal heating is diluted by nonthermal pressure. Since our flows are subsonic nea r the massive black holes, distributed cooling continues within similar to 300 pc. Dark, low-mass stars formed in this region may be responsible for s ome of the mass attributed to central black holes.