HST images (with WFPC2) of PHL~909\ (z=0.171) and PG~0052+251\ (z=0.155) show that these luminous radio-quiet quasars each occur in an
apparently normal host galaxy. The host galaxy of PHL~909 is an elliptical
galaxy (∼ E4) and the host of PG~0052+251 is a spiral (∼~Sb). Both
host galaxies are several tenths of a magnitude brighter than L∗, the
characteristic Schechter luminosity of field galaxies.
The images of PHL~909 and PG~0052+251, when compared with HST images of
other objects in our sample of 20 luminous, small-redshift (z≤0.30)
quasars, show that luminous quasars occur in a variety of environments. The
local environments of the luminous quasars range from luminous ellipticals, to
apparently normal host galaxies, to complex systems of interacting components,
to faint (and as yet undetected) hosts.
The bright HII regions of the host galaxy of PG~0052+251 provide an
opportunity to measure directly the metallicity of the host of a luminous
quasar, to establish an upper limit to the mass of the nuclear AGN (i.e., the
putative black hole source), and to test stringently the cosmological
hypothesisthat the galaxy and the quasar are both at the distance indicated by
the quasar redshift.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX file. Seven postscript figures available from
anonymous ftp to ftp://eku.sns.ias.edu/pub/sofia/ as phlpgfg1.ps,
phlpgfg2.ps, phlpgfg3.ps, phlpgfg4.ps, phlpgfg5.ps, phlpgfg6a.ps,
phlpgfg6b.ps, phlpgfg7.ps. To appear in ApJ, February 1, 199