This is a two year program of visual line and continuum imaging and 12 cm HI and millimeter wave CO mapping of lenticular (S0) galaxies. These are abundant galaxies that were once widely believed to be devoid of an interstellar medium (ISM), and conse- quently, bereft of star formation. Observations of a large number of such galaxies permit (1) derivation of the rate, loca- tion and efficiency of star birth; (2) determination of the distribution, mass, and phase of the ISM; (3) estimation of the luminosity function of HII regions and the stellar mass distribu- tion in the disk and bulge; (4) possible isolation of the effects of gravity alone in "starbursts" in interacting galaxies; and (5) investigation of the minimum global conditions necessary to sustain large-scale star formation. This program is part of a broad investigation into the nature of the ISM and star formation in disk galaxies without optical structure (viz. lenticulars and irregulars) using at present the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the IRAS data base, and groundbased telescopes.
