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H. A. Bushouse (StScI), K. D. Borne (Raytheon ITSS), L. Colina (STScI/ESA), R. A. Lucas (STScI )
We report on an analysis of HST imaging observations of the bright multiple cores (starburst knots or merger remnant nuclei?) at the centers of ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs). ULIRGs are strongly starbursting, heavily dust-enshrouded, and engaged in strong tidal/merger events. Our analyses of WFPC2 I-band and NICMOS H-band images are revealing the nature, physical properties, likely origin, and probable future evolutionary state of these cores. We will present results on core sizes, luminosities, colors, light profiles, separations, and frequency of occurence.
Support for this work was provided by NASA through grants # GO-6346.01-95A and GO-7896.01-96A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: borne@xfiles.gsfc.nasa.gov