Conclusions

The rough estimates presented here suggest that the Parkes HI multibeam survey will detect some new HI-rich giant elliptical galaxies, as well as a large population of small, gas-rich early-type galaxies which have not previously been studied in any systematic way. Some of the questions which might be answered by follow-up studies of this population include:

• How common is star formation in small early-type galaxies, and what acts as a trigger?
• How do the properties of small elliptical galaxies compare with those of spiral bulges of similar mass?
• How are the small elliptical and S0 galaxies related to the blue compact dwarfs (BCDs)? Can we set up a classification system for small galaxies which is based on their physical properties rather than their appearance?
• How many of these galaxies contain dark matter, and how is it distributed?
• Why do large and small elliptical galaxies appear structurally similar when so many of their other properties are different?

© Copyright Astronomical Society of Australia 1997