Infrared observations of interacting/merging galaxies.

The present sample of 20 galaxy systems, selected on the basis of morphological evidence for the tidal interaction or merger of two galaxies and observed at 1-10 microns, is noted to include 11 systems, detected at 10 microns, which have on average a significantly higher IR luminosity than noninteracting galaxies. The enhanced IR radiation is due to star formation bursts. On the basis of IR Astronomical Satellite results for a sample of galaxies, as much as 30 percent of all the far-IR emission observed arises in bursts of star formation that are triggered by interactions, and massive stars account for most of the luminosity in these bursts. It is suggested, in view of a massive star formation rate in the interacting and merging galaxies that is about 3 times higher than in noninteracting systems, that much of this star formation occurred in either nuclear regions or merger remnants.