AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 94 From Protogalaxies to Large Surveys: Tracing the Galaxy Evolution
Poster, Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[94.18] Near-Infrared Photometry of the High-Redshift Quasar RDJ030117+002025: Evidence for a Massive Starburst at z=5.5

J.G. Staguhn (NASA/GSFC), D. Stern (NASA/JPL), D.J. Benford (NASA/GSFC), F. Bertoldi (MPIfR, Bonn), G.S. Djorgovski, D.J. Thompson (Caltech)

RDJ030117+002025, with MB ~ -24 mag (~3.7 1012 Lo) and z=5.5, is the most distant quasar known with MB > -26 mag. MAMBO observations in the 1.2 mm continuum (185 \mum rest frame wavelength) demonstrate that the host galaxy is an ultraluminous FIR source, with LFIR ~ 4x1012 Lo. This is similar to the LFIR observed in high-z quasars from the SDSS, which are over 100 times brighter at optical wavelengths. Here we present near-infrared J- and K-band photometry obtained with NIRC on the Keck telescope, tracing the rest frame UV spectral index of this quasar. These observations providee strong evidence for the scenario in which the faint rest-frame UV luminosity is due to an intrinsically faint AGN, and not due to obscuration at observed optical wavelengths. The implication is that the FIR luminosity is due to a massive starburst at z>5.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: staguhn@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov

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© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.