Chandra observations of expanding shells in the dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 3077

Deep Chandra observations ( 53 ks, ACIS- S3) of NGC 3077, a starburst dwarf galaxy in the M81 triplet, resolve the X- ray emission from several supershells. The emission is brightest in the cavities defined by expanding shells detected previously in Halpha emission. Thermal emission models fitted to the data imply temperatures ranging from similar to 1.3 to 4.9 x 10(6) K and indicate that the strongest absorption is coincident with the densest clouds traced by CO emission. The fitted emission measures give pressures of P/k approximate to (10(5)-10(6)) xi (-0.5) f(upsilon) (-0.5) K cm(-3) ( where xi is the metallicity of the hot gas in solar units and f(upsilon) is the volume filling factor). Despite these high pressures, the radial density profile of the hot gas is not as steep as that expected in a freely expanding wind ( e. g., as seen in the neighboring starburst galaxy M82), implying that the hot gas is still confined by the Halpha shells. The chaotic dynamical state of NGC 3077 undermines reliable estimates of the escape velocity. The more relevant quantity for the ultimate fate of the outflow is probably the gas density in the rich intragroup medium. Based on the H i distribution of NGC 3077 and a connected tidal tail we argue that the wind has the potential to leave the gravitational well of NGC 3077 to the north but not to the south. The total 0.3 - 6.0 keV X- ray luminosity is similar to (2-5) x 10(39) ergs s(-1) ( depending on the selected thermal plasma model). Most (similar to 85%) of the X- ray luminosity in NGC 3077 comes from the hot interstellar gas; the remainder comes from six X- ray point sources. In spite of previous claims to the contrary, we do not find X- ray emission originating from the prominent tidal tail near NGC 3077.