The very young starburst merger system NGC 1741

We use Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Faint Object Camera (FOC) ultraviolet ( UV) and WFPC2 optical images in conjunction with UV spectroscopic observati ons taken with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph to examine the star formation history and properties of the interacting galaxy system NGC 1741 in the Hickson Compact Group 31. The high spatial resolution afforded by H ST has allowed us to identify a large number of starburst knots, or "super- star clusters" (SSCs), in the starburst regions of this system. Photometry of these SSCs in the UV and optical bands indicates that most of these obje cts have ages of a few Myr, with a few up to approximate to 100 Myr, and ma sses between 10(4) and 10(6) M.. The estimated age is cofirmed by a spectra l synthesis analysis of one knot for which we have obtained a UV spectrum. The V-band luminosity function of the SSCs is well represented by a power l aw phi(L) similar to L-alpha with an index of -1.85, with no evidence of a turnover brighter than the completeness limit. These properties are in good agreement with those found for SSCs in other starburst galaxies. Our resul ts support the suggestion that some of these SSCs may be extremely young gl obular clusters formed in a relatively recent starburst episode that has be en triggered by a merger event.