For her thesis, Denise Smith conducted a detailed examination of the properties of a radio selected sample of starburst galaxies using both IR imaging and spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy. Combining these data, we are able to place limits on the nature and duration of the starburst events.

Among these objects is NGC 7771, a barred Sa in a tight group. Using the Palomar 5m telescope, we detected a near-infrared counterpart to the 1.6 kpc diameter circumnuclear ring also seen in the radio continuum. The implied star formation rate is about 40 solar masses per year.

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