ASCA observation of the compact group of galaxies SCGG 223

Optical observations of the compact group of galaxies SCGG 223 show that th e velocity dispersion in it is as high as 1106 km S-1, While the group itse lf seems to be relaxed. Numerical simulations also suggest that SCGG 223 is virialized. Therefore, it is inferred that the gravitational mass in SCGG 223 may be comparable with that in a typical galaxy cluster, and the intra- group gas may be extremely hot. In order to explore these! unusual implicat ions, we observed SCGG 223 in X-rays with the ASCA satellite in February, 1 999. The gas temperature and the 0.5 similar to 10 keV luminosity are found to be kT = 1.4(-0.4)(+0.6) keV and 9.85(-2.04)(+6.11) x 10(43)J S-1, respe ctively, which show that SCGG 223 belongs to usual galaxy groups. Due to th e lack of enough photon counts, we are not able to perform the X-ray spectr oscopic imaging to deduce the radial distribution of the gravitating mass i n SCGG 223, by the use of which crucial comparison would have been made wit h the optical virial mass. Thus, for a complete understanding of SCGG 223, further X-ray observations with satellites such as XMM is desirable.