Related papers: BL Lac host galaxies: how to systematically charac…
BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a…
We investigate the properties of the host galaxies of X-ray selected (high frequency peaked) BL Lac objects using a large and homogeneous data set of high spatial resolution R-band observations of 52 BL Lacs in the EMSS and Slew samples.…
We report on the optical properties of a sample of 30 BL Lac host galaxies in the redshift range $0.03<z<0.2$, as derived from HST observations. All galaxies are fully resolved in the WFPC2 (F702W filter) images, allowing a quantitative…
We present H-band imaging of 23 low redshift (z < 0.3) BL Lac objects that were previously investigated by us in the R-band. For all the observed objects, the host galaxy is well represented by an elliptical model, with average scale length…
We have used the HST WFPC2 camera to survey 132 BL Lac objects comprising seven complete radio-, X-ray-, and optically-selected samples. We obtained useful images for 110 targets spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 1.3. In two thirds of the…
Snapshot images of about 100 BL Lac objects were obtained with WFPC2 on HST. Sources from various samples, in the redshift range 0.05 to 1.2, were observed and 61 resolved (51 with known z). The high resolution and homogeneity of the images…
We report on a large HST imaging survey of BL Lac objects, at spatial resolution ~10 times better than previous ground-based surveys. We focus on data reduction and analysis, describing the procedures used to model the host galaxy surface…
We present deep Near-infrared (NIR) images of a sample of 19 intermediate-redshift ($0.3<z<1.0$) radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) with powerful relativistic jets ($L_{1.4GHz} >10^{27}$ WHz$^{-1}$), previously classified as…
Six BL Lac objects from the complete 1 Jy radio-selected sample of 34 objects were observed in Cycle 5 with the HST WFPC2 camera to an equivalent limiting flux of mu_I~26 mag/arcsec^2. Here we report results for the second half of this…
The HST NICMOS Camera 2 was used for H-band imaging of 12 BL Lacertae objects taken from the larger sample observed with the WFPC2 in the R band (Urry et al. 2000; Scarpa et al. 2000). Ten of the 12 BL Lacs are clearly resolved, and the…
Aims.The main purpose of this study is to investigate aspects regarding the validity of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) unification paradigm (UP). In particular, we focus on the AGN host galaxies, which according to the UP should show no…
The HST snapshot imaging survey of 110 BL Lac objects (Urry et al. 2000) has clearly shown that the host galaxies are massive and luminous ellipticals. The dispersion of the absolute magnitudes is sufficiently small, so that the measurement…
We compare the host galaxies properties of BL Lac objects with those of radio loud quasars (RLQs) imaged by the WFPC2 on board of HST. The considered objects (z<0.5) are always well resolved and their host galaxies satisfactorily modelled…
Aims: We present optical spectroscopy of a sample of BL Lac objects, to determine their redshift, to study their broad emission line properties and to characterize their close environment. Methods: Twelve objects were observed using the ESO…
High-resolution images of 7 newly identified BL Lac objects (among them one BL Lac candidate) at z < 0.2 from the Einstein Slew Survey are presented for the first time. In all cases we were able to resolve the host galaxy. Our 2-dimensional…
We present the results of near-infrared H band (1.65 microns) imaging of 11 BL Lac objects with redshifts ranging from z = 0.05 to 0.9. We are able to clearly detect the host galaxy in seven low redshift (z<=0.24) BL Lacs, while the four…
Near-infrared and optical imaging of BL Lac host galaxies is used to investigate their colour properties. We find that the R-H colour and colour gradient distributions of the BL Lac hosts are much wider than those for normal ellipticals,…
We present B-band imaging of 18 low redshift (z<0.3) BL Lac objects for which their host galaxies were previously resolved in the R-band and the near-infrared H-band. For a subset of the objects, also U- and V-band imaging is presented.…
We investigate the luminosity evolution of the host galaxies of radio-loud AGN through Hubble Space Telescope imaging of 72 BL Lac objects, including new STIS imaging of nine z > 0.6 BL Lacs. With their intrinsically low accretion rates and…
(abridged) We present near-infrared Ks-band imaging of 13 high redshift (0.6 < z < 1.3) BL Lac objects. We clearly detect the host in eight objects, and marginally in three others. In all cases, the host galaxy is well represented by an…