1998/07/23 by Laura E. Kay, Laura E. Kay, Edward C. Moran +1 · 18 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Emission spectrum #Flux (metallurgy) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #H-alpha #Line (geometry) #Luminosity #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/316224
published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 110(751), 1003-1006 (Institute of Physics) · 10 pages using (AASTEX) aaspp4.sty and 4 postscript figures. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Research Notes, in press
arxiv created 1998/07/23 · openalex publication_date 1998/09/01 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We have detected a broad Hα emission line in the polarized flux spectrum of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 788, indicating that it contains an obscured Seyfert 1 nucleus. Although such features have been observed in ∼15 other Seyfert 2 galaxies, this example is unusual because it has a higher fraction of galaxy starlight in its spectrum, a lower average measured polarization, and a significantly lower radio luminosity than other hidden Seyfert 1 galaxies discovered to date. This demonstrates that polarized broad‐line regions can be detected in relatively weak classical Seyfert 2 galaxies and illustrates why well‐defined, reasonably complete spectropolarimetric surveys at Hα are necessary in order to assess whether or not all Seyfert 2 galaxies are obscured Seyfert 1 galaxies.