The discovery of EUV and soft X-ray excess emission in clusters of galaxies
(the cluster soft excess phenomenon) challenged the notion of the hot (sim
ilar to 10(7)-10(8) K) gas as the only dominant thermal component of the in
tracluster medium (ICM). The spatial analysis of ROSAT PSPC 1/4 keV images
presented here reveals compelling evidence for substantial amounts of cold
gas (H I) in the ICM of the Coma and Virgo Clusters. This finding bolsters
the original interpretation of the soft excess as emission from a "warm" (s
imilar to 10(6) K) gas and points to the scenario of a multiphase ICM where
the hot component coexists with gases at subvirial temperatures (the "warm
" and "cold" phases).