Keywords :
surveys - galaxies evolution - galaxies: peculiar - galaxies: structure - cosmology: observations
Abstract:The excess number of blue galaxies at faint magnitudes is a subject of much controversy. Recent Hubble Space Telescope results have revealed a plethora of galaxies with peculiar morphologies tentatively identified as the evolving population. We report the results of optical spectroscopy and near-infrared photometry of a sample of faint HST galaxies from the Medium Deep Survey to ascertain the physical properties of the faint morphological populations. We find four principal results. First, the population of objects classified as 'peculiar' are intrinsically luminous in the optical (M_B_~-19). Secondly these systems tend to be strong sources of [OII] line luminosity. Thirdly the optical-infrared colours of the faint
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