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Session 20 - QSOs.
Oral session, Monday, January 13
Frontenac Ballroom,

[20.04] Keck Spectra of Host Galaxies and Companions of QSOs.

J. Miller, H. Tran, A. Sheinis (Lick Observatory)

While recent work with HST has provided strong evidence that most relatively nearby QSOs are imbedded in nebulosity, identification of the nature of the nebulosity requires spectroscopic observations. We present spectra of the off-nuclear light of eight QSOs obtained with the LRIS spectrograph of the Keck Telescope. The majority of these clearly show the absorption spectra of the stars of a host galaxy at the same redshift as the QSO. In addition, emission lines from gas are evident in the nebulosities, and for one object, PG 0052+251, we detect the spectra of several H II regions along a spiral arm. The QSO PKS 2349-014 is particularly interesting, as spectra taken at several positions show that the surrounding nebulosity, the apparently tidal wisps, and the companion close to the QSO all have stellar absorpton lines at the same redshift as the QSO. These data show that if one wishes to ascribe non-cosmological redshifts to these QSOs, the entire surrounding galaxies and nearby companions must also have non-cosmological redshifts. The data add additional support for the evolutionary scheme for QSOs and AGN published previously (J. Miller, Proc.N.A.S., Vol. 92, 11422, 1995).


Program listing for Monday