Bibcode
DOI
Falomo, Renato; Urry, C. Megan; Pesce, Joseph E.; Scarpa, Riccardo; Giavalisco, Mauro; Treves, Aldo
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal v.476, p.113
Advertised on:
2
1997
Citations
37
Refereed citations
30
Description
We present high-resolution images of three BL Lac objects (0814+425,
1823+568, 2254+074) taken with the WFPC-2 camera on Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) as part of a study of BL Lacs from a complete
radio-selected sample. In two cases we clearly detect the host galaxies
while the third BL Lac (0814+425) is unresolved. The host galaxy of
2254+074 is a moderately bright elliptical, while the inferred
luminosity of the host galaxy for 1823+568 is at the high end of the
range for previously known BL Lac hosts. The lack of detection of a host
galaxy for 0814+425 calls into question the validity of its low reported
redshift. Comparison of the HST data with subarcsecond ground-based
R-band images shows excellent agreement on the largest scales, while on
smaller scales only HST detects the galaxy significantly above the
nuclear light. In the case of 2254+074, the high resolution of HST
allows us to establish that the host galaxy is an elliptical.