A Spectroscopic Characterization of a Blazar Candidate Excluded by Automated Morphology Classification

Abstract

Blazars are radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) with their jets pointing at us at a very small angle. J064334.60–331430.29 (hereafter J0643–3314) was selected as a blazar candidate by its colors and compactness in archival radio images. In Xie et al. 2024, we introduce an algorithm to recognize likely blazars using the morphology observed in the 3 GHz Very Large Array Sky Survey. According to our algorithm, J0643–3314 is unlikely a blazar based on the two-sided jet seen in VLASS. To validate the result of our algorithm, we investigate this source further. From the extended two-sided jet lobes, the upturn radio spectrum, and the broad emission lines in the follow-up spectrum, we robustly conclude that J0643–3314 is not a blazar. We spectroscopically confirm it as a radio-loud AGN at z = 0.3, with a projected jet size of 100.4 kpc. We estimate its bolometric luminosity to be ∼6×1044 erg s−1, black hole mass of ∼2×108 M ⊙, and Eddington ratio of ∼0.02 from Hβ and Hα broad emission lines.