Abstract
Early type galaxies, in general, appear to be more symmetric than late type galaxies. There have been attempts to quantify this trend into an asymmetry parameter, aiming to determine the morphological type of distant galaxies. Studies conducted on samples of nearby galaxies find a fairly reasonable correlation between asymmetry and morphological type of galaxies. However, it is important to understand the correlation physically before the correlation could be used to classify distant galaxies. With this purpose we carried out a multi-band analysis of asymmetry of nearby galaxies. We find a dependence between asymmetry parameter and wavelength which can be explained by a model, i n which recently formed stars play an important role. The model also reproduces the correlation of asymmetry parameter with global quantities such as color and Hα flux of galaxies. From these analyses, we conclude that asymmetry parameter is closely tied to the current star formation rate and hence its use as a morphological indicator is limited.
