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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2017
A sample of unusually warm IRAS galaxies with spectral energy distributions peaking at 60μm is studied. The complete sample consisting of 21 known galaxies and 40 previously unidentified galaxies is selected according to the following criteria: all galaxies in IRAS Point Source Catalogue with high quality detections at 25μm and 60μm, FIR fluxes such that 4>f60/f25>1 and f60/f100>1, and a galactic latitude of |b|>10°. The colour ctireria select against galaxies with a significant cool dust component and the hotter dust present is presumably circumnuclear (Vader et al., 1988). CCD imaging reveals a morphological dichotomy in our sample - the galaxies are either relaxed systems (E/S0) or interacting (double nuclei, tidal features etc.). The relatively fast process of merging may link these two types of systems.