Hickson Compact Groups of Galaxies I.

All studies published so far have been undermined by the poor sensitivity and spatial resolution of the IRAS-PSC and IRAS Sky Survey data. We used the HIRAS software available at the IRAS server at the Laboratory for Space Research in Groningen to fully exploit the redundancy of the IRAS data and to approach the theoretical diffraction limit of IRAS.

Among the 97 groups which were observed by IRAS, 62 were detected in at least one band, while reliable upper limits were derived for all the others. Among the detected groups, 49 were fully or partially resolved, i.e. it was possible to discriminate which member or members emit most of the FIR light. At 60{mu}m, for instance, 87 individual sources were detected in 62 groups.