Discovery of a bright quasar without a massive host galaxy

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dc.creatorMagain, Pierre
dc.creatorLetawe, Geraldine
dc.creatorCourbin, Frederic
dc.creatorJablonka, Pascale
dc.creatorJahnke, Knud
dc.creatorWisotzki, Lutz
dc.creatorMeylan, Georges
dc.date2005-09-15
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T06:26:01Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T06:26:01Z
dc.descriptionQuasars are thought to be powered by the infall of matter onto a supermassive black hole at the centre of massive galaxies. As the optical luminosity of quasars exceeds that of their host galaxy, disentangling the two components can be difficult. This led in the 1990's to the controversial claim of the discovery of 'naked' quasars. Since then, the connection between quasars and galaxies has been well established. Here we report on the observation of a quasar lying at the edge of a gas cloud, whose size is comparable to that of a small galaxy, but whose spectrum shows no evidence for stars. The gas cloud is excited by the quasar itself. If a host galaxy is present, it is at least six times fainter than would normally be expected for such a bright quasar. The quasar is interacting dynamically with a neighbouring galaxy - which matter might be feeding the black hole.
dc.description5 figures, published in Nature
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509433
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509433
dc.identifierNature 437 (2005) 381-384
dc.identifierdoi:10.1038/nature04013
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/96994
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleDiscovery of a bright quasar without a massive host galaxy
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