Redshifts in the surroundings of MRC 0156-252

The structure was initially discovered as an overdensity of both near-infrared selected z>1.6 and mid-infrared selected z>1.2 galaxy candidates. We used the VLT/FORS2 multi-object spectrograph to target ~80 high-redshift galaxy candidates, and obtain robust spectroscopic redshifts for more than half the targets.

The majority of the confirmed sources are star-forming galaxies at z>1.5. In addition to the radio galaxy, two of its close-by companions (<6") also show AGN signatures. Ten sources, including the radio galaxy, lie within |z-2.020|<0.015 (i.e., velocity offsets <1500km/s) and within projected 2Mpc comoving of the radio galaxy.