Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1989. 27: 235-277 Copyright © 1989 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

12. CONCLUSION

This paper is being written at a time of unusually rapid progress in galaxy photometry. Some tentative conclusions, especially in the latter parts of this paper, may even evolve by the time you read this. CCDs have made it possible to measure second-order structure parameters like isophote shape distortions, color gradients, and dust. More difficult physical questions have become accessible. Soon, near-infrared array detectors: will provide important new kinds of data. Therefore, the next few years promise substantial progress in our understanding of the structure of elliptical galaxies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are most grateful to R. Bender, R. Davies, R. de Carvalho, G. Illingworth, J.-L. Nieto, R. Peletier, F. Schweizer, A. Toomre, and especially T. de Zeeuw for very, helpful discussions, comments on the manuscript, or data in advance of publication. Also, it is a pleasure to thank the many people who sent us preprints, including those on subjects that were ultimately not covered because of space limitations. During this work, SD was supported by Caltech and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.