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Zwicky Galaxies

Luminous Seyfert galaxies have turned up as members of two types of morphologically selected samples of galaxies. Zwicky identified blue compact galaxies as a distinct morphological type, and many of these turned out to be high-luminosity Seyfert galaxies. On the basis of spectroscopic and morphological considerations, these are ``almost QSOs''. For example, the compact blue galaxies II Zw 136 = 2130+099 (the 136th entry in Zwicky's second catalog) and I Zw 1 = 0051+124 have absolute B magnitudes MB approx -21.53 + 5 log h0 and MB approx -21.80 + 5 log h0, respectively, which by the modern definition fall into the QSO class.

Adapted from B.M. Peterson An Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei, Cambridge University Press, (1997)