Recent studies of the hot interstellar medium in normal elliptical galaxies have shown that (1) the gas is only approximately hydrostatic; (2) morphological disturbances are corrleated with radio and X-ray signatures of AGN; and (3) temperature gradients in the main bodies of the galaxies are correlated with nuclear activity but not with environment. An X-ray Gas Fundamental Plane (XGFP), unrelated to the stellar fundamental plane, links the global gas properties in a relation whose origin is not yet understood.
