P. Heraudeau, MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SPIRALS IN THE NEAR-INFRARED, Comptes rendus de l'Academie des sciences. Serie II. Mecanique, physique, chimie, astronomie, 323(11), 1996, pp. 787-794
Near-infrared images are used to study the morphology and the dust pro
perties of three spiral galaxies: I) ESO 320-26 exhibits a circumnucle
ar ring whose colours may be interpreted by the presence of dust and/o
r an active star-forming region. 2) In NGC 4219, the dust follows the
inner ridge of the spiral arms and its bulge is partially obscured. 3)
NGC 6810 has a very dissymmetric bulge, masked by dust and very red p
arts in the JHK plane corresponding to regions of highest extinction.