The Compton-thick quasar at the heart of the high-redshift giant radio galaxy 6C 0905+39

Our XMM-Newton spectrum of the giant, high-redshift (z = 1.88) radio galaxy 6C 0905+39 shows that it contains one of the most powerful, high redshift, Compton-thick quasars known. Its spectrum is very hard above 2 keV. The steep XMM-Newton spectrum below that energy is shown to be due to extended emission from the radio bridge using Chandra data. The nucleus of 6C 0905+39 has a column density of 3.5(-0.4)(+1.4) x 10(24) cm(-2) and absorption-corrected X-ray luminosity of 1.7(-0.1)(+0.9) x 10(45) erg s(-1) in the 2-10 keV band. A lower redshift active galaxy in the same field, SDSS J090808.36+394313.6, may also be Compton thick.