Star‐forming Objects in the Tidal Tails of Compact Groups

Abstract

A search for star-forming objects belonging to tidal tails has beencarried out in a sample of deep H{α} images of 16 compact groups ofgalaxies. A total of 36 objects with H{α} luminosities greater than10^{38} ergs s^{-1} has been detected in five groups.The fraction of the total H{α} luminosity of their respective parentgalaxies shown by the tidal objects is always below 5% except for thetidal features of Hickson compact group 95, whose H{α} luminosityamounts to 65% of the total luminosity. Out of these 36 objects, ninestar-forming tidal dwarf galaxy candidates finally have been identifiedon the basis of their projected distances to the nuclei of the parentgalaxies and their total H{α} luminosities. Overall, the observedproperties of the candidates resemble those previously reported for theso-called tidal dwarf galaxies.