Near-infrared imaging of interacting galaxies

Abstract

Galaxy-galaxy interactions are known to cause dramatic changes in morphology and at the same time often induce large bursts of star formation activity. While optical images are sufficient to reveal the overall morphological peculiarities of these systems, they suffer from several problems, the greatest of which is obscuration by dust within the galaxies. Furthermore, small-scale structure seen in optical images is often dominated by the light of young and intermediate-age stars. With the advent of two-dimensional array detectors that operate in the near-infrared window, we can for the first time obtain high resolution images that escape the domination of young stars and lift the veil of dust in these galaxies. We have obtained near-infrared J and K-band images for 25 interacting galaxies at a resolution of 0.75 arcsec/pixel using the Kitt Peak National Observatory 58x62 element InSb infrared array camera. The galaxies were chosen from the larger sample compiled by Bushouse (1986), which has been studied in detail optically and in the far-infrared (Bushouse 1987; Bushouse, Lamb and Werner 1988).