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IAUC 9047: C/2009 K3; DOUBLE QUASAR SDSS J153636.22+044127.0

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                                                  Circular No. 9047
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)


COMET C/2009 K3 (BESHORE)
     E. Beshore reports his discovery of a comet with a diffuse
nuclear condensation in four co-added 30-s CCD images taken with
the Mount Lemmon 1.5-m reflector (discovery observation tabulated
below); co-added exposures show a faint 15" tail in p.a. about 90
deg.  Following posting on the Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP'
webpage, W. H. Ryan writes that CCD images obtained on May 28.25-
28.27 UT with the Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4-m reflector also
show a distinct tail in p.a. approximately 90 deg.

     2009 UT             R.A. (2000) Decl.       Mag.   Observer
     May  26.16484   11 45 40.39   + 4 22 33.6   20.5   Beshore

The available astrometry, the following preliminary parabolic
orbital elements, and an ephemeris appear on MPEC 2009-K62.

     T = 2011 Jan.  9.266 TT          Peri. = 251.413
                                      Node  =   0.032   2000.0
     q = 3.90156 AU                   Incl. = 146.680


DOUBLE QUASAR SDSS J153636.22+044127.0
     R. Decarli and A. Treves, Universita dell'Insubria, Como; R.
Falomo, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova and INAF; M. Dotti,
University of Michigan; M. Colpi, Universita di Milano-Bicocca; and
J. K. Kotilainen, Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku, report
on a deep K-band image taken at the European Southern Observatory
of the quasar SDSS J153636.22+044127.0 on Apr. 30.29 UT using the
Very Large Telescope (+ HAWK-I).  The spectrum of this radio-quiet
QSO (z = 0.3893) exhibits two broad emission-line systems at
slightly different redshifts (differing by 3300 km/s) in the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey optical spectrum and was thus proposed as a
candidate binary massive-black-hole system with sub-parsec
separation (Boroson and Lauer 2009, Nature 458, 53).  The new VLT
image shows that the object is composed of two sources (with total
magnitudes m_K = 14.1 and 15.8) at a separation of 1" (5.3 kpc).
Both sources consist of a nucleus plus an extended emission; the
host galaxies, with nuclei components subtracted, have total
magnitudes m_K = 15.6 and 16.2.  These results strongly suggest
that SDSS J1536+0441 is a kpc-scale pair of quasars.  This
interpretation is consistent with the recent independent finding of
two compact radio sources in the same source by Wrobel and Laor
(2009, http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0905.3566).

                      (C) Copyright 2009 CBAT
2009 May 28                    (9047)            Daniel W. E. Green

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