The optical and IR morphology of the BAL quasar PG 1700+518

A deep R-band image of the low-redshift (z = 0.292) BAL quasar PG 1700+518 (with 0.5″ resolution after image restoration) reveals an unusual boomerang-like morphological feature only ≈2.5″ north of the quasar point source. A relatively faint and almost symmetric nebulosity is possibly hidden by the bright quasar point source, which might be interpreted as the host galaxy. From the suspected host galaxy component, an even fainter asymmetric extension is possibly detected towards the southwest. In contrast to the suspected host galaxy, the boomerang feature north and the asymmetric extension southwest of the quasar are also detected in an H-band image of PG 1700+518, which might be due to the fact that they are redder than any nebulosity underlying the bright quasar point source. The new data give a much clearer view of the unusual morphology of PG 1700+518, the components of which had been suggested by previous images of similar angular resolution.