A&A Supplement series, Vol. 129, APRIL I 1998, 69-81
Received April 1; accepted September 24, 1997
S. Junqueira
, D.F. de
Mello
, L. Infante
Send offprint request: selma@on.br
Observatório Nacional - C. Postal 23002,
Rio de Janeiro, 20921-400, Brazil
Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica,
P. Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 104,
Santiago 22, Chile
We present photometric analysis of a local sample of 14 isolated pairs of galaxies. The photometric properties analyzed in the local pairs are: colors, morphology, tidal effects and activity. We verify that close pairs have an excess of early-type galaxies and many elliptical galaxies in this pairs are, in fact, lenticular galaxies. Many late-pairs in our sample show strong tidal damage and blue star formation regions. We conclude that pairs of different morphologies may have passed through different evolution processes which violently transformed their morphology. Pairs with at least one early-type component may be descendents of groups of galaxies. However, late-type pairs are probably long-lived showing clearly signs of interaction. Some of them could be seen as an early stage of mergers. These photometric databases will be used for future comparison with more distant pairs in order to study galaxy evolution.
keywords: galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: fundamental parameters -- galaxies: interactions -- galaxies: photometry