MGC2214+3550: A New Binary Quasar
Astrophysics
2009-10-30 v1
Abstract
We report the discovery of a binary quasar, MGC2214+3550 A,B, whose components have similar optical spectra at a redshift z=0.88. The quasars are separated on the sky by 3.0", and have a magnitude difference of Delta(m_I)=0.5 mag. The VLA radio map at 3.6 cm shows a single 47mJy radio source with a core-jet morphology that is coincident with the brighter optical quasar A. Gravitational lensing is ruled out by the lack of radio emission from quasar B, and the lack of any visible galaxies to act as the lens. We conclude that MGC 2214+3550 A and B are physically associated. With a projected separation of 12.7h^{-1} kpc (Omega_0=1), MGC 2214+3550 A,B is one of the smallest z>0.5 binary quasars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9710014,
title = {MGC2214+3550: A New Binary Quasar},
author = {José A. Muñoz and Emilio E. Falco and Christopher S. Kochanek and Joseph Lehár and Lori K. Herold and André B. Fletcher and Bernard F. Burke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9710014},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
13 pages, 3 .ps figs, submitted to ApJL