Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...181.1101a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 181st AAS Meeting, #11.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.1134
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Ultraviolet (lambda lambda 1800--3300 in the observers' frame) low-resolution spectropolarimetry of the radio-selected BL Lacertae object OJ 287 is presented. These observations were made using the Faint Object Spectrograph of the Hubble Space Telescope and were made when OJ 287 was very faint (V ~ 16.8). The object was very highly polarized in the UV with the degree of linear polarization being about 19%. Nearly simultaneous ground-based UBVRI polarimetry of OJ 287 yields similar results for the optical polarization. There is no evidence for any significant wavelength dependence in either the degree or position angle of polarization. The high degree of polarization and its wavelength independence are compelling evidence that even when OJ 287 is faint, highly polarized nonthermal emission still dominates the UV/optical continuum. Also, there is no evidence for a significant contribution from low-polarization emission components, such as starlight from the host galaxy or the ``big blue bump'', to the spectral energy distribution of the AGN. This research is supported by NASA grant NAG 5-1630.
Allen Richard G.
Smith Paul S.
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