IRAS SOURCES IN THE DIRECTION OF RICH CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES

Results of a search for possible associations between point sources in the IRAS catalogue and rich clusters of galaxies in the recently published Abell, Corwin & Olowin (ACO) catalogue are presented. It is found that the surface density of IRAS sources rises progressively above the background as the projected distance from the cluster centre decreases below about 1 Mpc. The increase is most pronounced for the poorest clusters in the ACO catalogue. At low redshift (z less-than-or-equal-to 0.031) the spatial distribution of ACO-IRAS associations is markedly anisotropic with a 3-sigma enhancement in the direction of the Great Attractor.