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R.A. Lucas, H. Bushouse (Space Telescope Science Institute), L. Colina (Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria), K.D. Borne (Raytheon STX-GSFC)
Tidal tails of interacting and merging galaxies, if present with the same frequency and characteristics as in the local universe, should be readily visible out to reasonably high redshifts in many NGST images, even with relatively short exposure times, and especially so in those of moderate and longer exposure times. Although many may be detected from the ground, the detection of these features in greater numbers, at fainter levels, and at higher resolution will provide data with which to attack several important astrophysical problems which can best be done with NGST. Rather than from targeted surveys of galaxies with tidal tails, the main results may mostly be determined from generic ``blank" survey fields and from fields targeted for other reasons than observations of tidal tails. The easy detectability of these features would be, although serendipitous, an extra bonus and an important component of the ultimate value of the NGST Data Archive.
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s follows:
http://scivax.stsci.edu/~lucas/ngst_v5.ps