086381

Sloshing cold fronts observed at intermediate radii of galaxy clusters carry essential information on the macro-scale dynamical history and the micro-scale cluster physics. Previous Suzaku studies of the nearest cluster comma Virgo comma revealed two promising cold fronts at radii of 200-300 kpc to the south and west of M87 with pronounced temperature and density discontinuities. We propose three XMM-Newton EPIC observations to map the entire underlying sloshing front and to characterize its properties to a significantly better accuracy than was achieved with Susaku. The proposed study will allow us to test the suppression of fluid instabilities in the intracluster medium and to probe the evolution of the sloshing cold front over the past few billion years in this dynamically young cluster.