Near Infrared Photometry of Faint Radio Galaxies

Abstract

This paper describes the first results of systematic near IR photometry of radio galaxies in the Leiden Berkeley Deep Survey. The LBDS contains ∿ 400 radio sources with S_{1.4 GHz} ≥ 0.22 mJy (for details see van der Laan et al., this symposium), 50% of which have reliable optical identifications on deep multicolor KPNO 4^m plates, being mainly faint blue radio galaxies (Windhorst et al., 1982). The aim of the present IR photometry program is to study their IR properties and to obtain clues as to the nature of these faint blue radio galaxies, which may be either ellipticals, possibly with recent star formation, or spirals with exceptionally high radio power. The additional optical-IR color baseline will help to solve these questions.