Towards a Fundamental Astrometric Reference System behind the Magellanic Clouds: Spectroscopic Confirmation of New Quasar Candidates Selected in the Near-infrared
Quasi-stellar objects (quasars) locatedbehind nearby galaxies provide anexcellent absolute reference system forastrometric studies, but they are diffi-cult to identify because of fore- andbackground contamination. We haveembarked on a programme to expandthe quasar reference system behindthe Large and Small Magellanic Clouds,the Magellanic Bridge and MagellanicStream. Hundreds of quasar candidateswere selected, based on their near-infrared colours and variability proper-ties from the ESO VISTA MagellanicClouds (VMC) Public Survey. A subsetof 49 objects was followed up with opti-cal spectroscopy with FORS2. We con-firmed the quasar nature of 37 objects(34 new identifications) that span a red-shift range from z ~ 0.5 to 4.1.Fil: Ivanov, Valentin D.. No especifíca;Fil: Cioni, Maria Rosa L.. Universitat Potsdam; Alemania. Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam; Alemania. University of Hertfordshire; Reino UnidoFil: Bekki, Kenji. The University of Western Australia; AustraliaFil: de Grijs, Richard. Peking University; China. International Space Science Institute; ChinaFil: Emerson, Jim. Queen Mary University of London; Reino UnidoFil: Gibson, Brad K.. University of Hull; Reino UnidoFil: Kamath, Devika. Instituut voor Sterrenkunde; BélgicaFil: van Loon, Jacco Th.. Keele University; Reino UnidoFil: Piatti, Andres Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: For, Bi Qing. The University of Western Australia; Australi