7521(  1) - 12/14/96 00:19  - [  0]

    PROPOSAL FOR HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS   ST ScI Use Only
                                                       ID:      7521
                                                       Version: 1
                                                       Check-in Date: 13-Dec-1996
                                                                      18:13:55

1.Proposal Title:
Archival Study of Nuclear Morphology in Interactive Galaxies
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Scientific Category   3. Proposal For  4. Cycle
AGN/QUASARS                 AR               7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Investigators
                                                                                     Contact?
    PI: Kirk Borne                        Hughes STX
   CoI: Luis Colina                       Space Telescope Science Institute             N

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Abstract

Ground-based surveys of FR-I (Fanaroff-Riley type I) and FR-II host galaxies have
shown that a majority of these galaxies are ellipticals that are strongly
interacting with a close companion. This clearly suggests that there is a connection
between the interactions and the nuclear radio activity. To search for physical
evidence of this itinteraction-activity connection, we propose to use archival HST
images to analyze the subarcsecond nuclear morphology in a wide variety of
elliptical galaxies. This data set includes a sufficient number of most of the
relevant objects to facilitate a strong statistical evaluation of the role and
effects of interactions on nuclear activity. The following pairs of objects will be
compared: FR-I versus FR-II radio galaxies, radio-loud versus radio-quiet
ellipticals, and interacting versus non- interacting ellipticals. We are proposing a
companion GO program to compensate for the lack of images of strongly interacting FR
-I hosts in the HST archive. Our unique contribution to the analysis of these
archived images is that, unlike the original investigators on those programs, we
plan to investigate the interaction-activity connection -- to quantify for the first
time the parameters of the interaction and to tie these into the properties of the
radio emission (luminosity, core versus total emission, morphology). We hope to
measure and to demonstrate conclusively the effects of strong gravitational
interactions on the nuclear regions of the radio host galaxies and consequently to
validate the interaction-activity connection.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Data Distribution

  Media:           ELECTRONIC
  Blocking Factor: 10
  Ship To:         PI_Address
  Ship Via:
  Email:                                                              ,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                7521(  1) - 12/14/96 00:19  - [  1]

            Summary Form for Proposal  7521

  Item                         Used in this proposal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Proposal Category            AR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Scientific Category          AGN/QUASARS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------