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WHT spectroscopy of emission-line gas around two separate quasars at z = 0.87

1988; Oxford University Press; Volume: 235; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/mnras/235.1.13p

1365-2966

A. C. Fabian, C. S. Crawford, R. M. Johnstone, J. R. Allington‐Smith, P. C. Hewett,

Spectroscopy and Laser Applications

We report observations made with the Faint Object Spectrograph on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT), in which the line emission of the fuzz around two separate quasars, which coincidentally both have redshifts z = 0.87, is detected and measured. These represent the most distant quasars for which the spectrum of the fuzz has been obtained. The oxygen line ratios we observe are similar to those of the lower-z quasar 3C48 (to which the present quasars show a strong similarity) and again imply a high gas density. If confined by surrounding hot gas, the pressure is so high that an intracluster medium is required. This suggests that the quasars lie in clusters or groups of galaxies. The emission-line gas and the fuel for the quasar luminosity then derive from a cooling flow in the intracluster gas.