CaltechAUTHORS
Published June 1, 2017 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

PHL 6625: A Minor Merger-associated QSO Behind NGC 247

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Tsinghua University
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • 4. ROR icon Peking University
  • 5. ROR icon National Astronomical Observatories
  • 6. ROR icon University of Iowa
  • 7. ROR icon University of Manchester

Abstract

PHL 6625 is a luminous quasi-stellar object (QSO) at z = 0.3954 located behind the nearby galaxy NGC 247 (z = 0.0005). Hubble Space Telescope observations revealed an arc structure associated with it. We report on spectroscopic observations with the Very Large Telescope and multiwavelength observations from the radio to the X-ray band for the system, suggesting that PHL 6625 and the arc are a close pair of merging galaxies, instead of a strong gravitational lens system. The QSO host galaxy is estimated to be (4–28) × 10^(10) M☉ and the mass of the companion galaxy is estimated to be M* = (6.8 ± 2.4) × 10^9 M☉, suggesting that this is a minor merger system. The QSO displays typical broad emission lines, from which a black hole mass of about (2–5) × 10^8 M☉ and an Eddington ratio of about 0.01–0.05 can be inferred. The system represents an interesting and rare case where a QSO is associated with an ongoing minor merger, analogous to Arp 142.

Additional Information

© 2017 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2017 March 6; revised 2017 May 9; accepted 2017 May 12; published 2017 May 31. We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments that have improved the paper. We also thank Chien Y. Peng, Minjin Kim, Ning Jiang, and Yulin Zhao for their help in using the GALFIT software. H.F. acknowledges funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant No. 11633003, and the National Program on Key Research and Development Project (grant No. 2016YFA040080X). L.C.H. was supported by the National Key Program for Science and Technology Research and Development grant 2016YFA0400702. J.Q.G. and S.M. were partially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program "The Emergence of Cosmological Structures" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences grant No. XDB09000000 and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant numbers 11333003 and 11390372.

Attached Files

Published - Tao_2017_ApJ_841_118.pdf

Files

Tao_2017_ApJ_841_118.pdf

Files (1.5 MB)

Name Size
md5:5ebc35710b788b6677f6e9d01677e7c5
1.5 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
77973
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20170606-142443023

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China
11633003
National Program on Key Research and Development Project
2016YFA040080X
National Key Program for Science and Technology Research and Development
2016YFA0400702
Chinese Academy of Sciences
XDB09000000
National Natural Science Foundation of China
11333003
National Natural Science Foundation of China
11390372

Dates

Created
2017-06-06
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-15
Created from EPrint's last_modified field