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

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 observati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2017-06, Vol.841 (2), p.118
Main Authors: Tao, Lian, Feng, Hua, Shen, Yue, Ho, Luis C., Ge, Junqiang, Kaaret, Philip, Mao, Shude, Liu, Xin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
EMISSION
Emission lines
GALAXIES
galaxies: active
galaxies: interactions
galaxies: nuclei
Galaxy mergers & collisions
GALAXY NUCLEI
GRAVITATIONAL LENSES
Hubble Space Telescope
INTERACTIONS
MASS
QUASARS
quasars: supermassive black holes
SPACE
Space telescopes
TELESCOPES
Very Large Telescope
X RADIATION
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Summary: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) × 1010 M☉ and the mass of the companion galaxy is estimated to be M* = (6.8 2.4) × 109 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) × 108 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.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/aa72f3