10 micron observations of bright galaxies

Abstract

Fifty-two galaxies with photographic magnitudes of less than 11.0 have been measured at 10 microns by using small beam diameters, and 22 of this group have been detected. This unbiased galaxy sample demonstrates that infrared-bright galactic nuclei are common and that these nuclei have very small mass-to-luminosity ratios, with an average M/L of the order of 0.2 for the nuclei of large spiral galaxies.