The ultraluminous IRAS galaxy IRAS 19254 - 7245 is investigated by means of aperture spectroscopy and it shows the spectral characteristics of a Seyfert 2-type galaxy with the emission lines split into four images independent kinematical components separated by a velocity of 1491 km s^-1^. A heavy internal obscuration corresponding to E(B -V) = 1.40 and a total amount of ionized gas equal to M_g_ = 1.1 x 10^8^ M_sun_ have been measured in the circumnuclear emission-line regions. The upper limit to the total dust mass is M_d_ = 1.5 x 10^7^ M_sun_ and the corresponding cold gas mass is M_cg_= 3.0 x 10^9^ M_sun_, while the total amount of molecular gas detected in the whole system is M_H2_= 3.0x10^10^ M_sun_ . The optical morphology shows a distorted main body composed of two differentiated nuclei separated by about 10 kpc while two long tails extending over a total size of 305 kpc in projection are also detected. The measured amounts of cold gas and dust together with the extraordinarily large size of the tails indicate that IRAS 19254-7245 is the merger of two almost equally massive gas-rich spiral galaxies and that the merging process did start 10^9^ yr ago. The line splitting is interpreted as produced in a biconical outflow characterized by an opening angle of around 800, an inclination of the symmetry axis with respect to our line-of-sight of 73^deg^, and flow velocity of 800 km s^-1^. The total kinetic energy of this outflow amounts to E_K_ = 0.5 M_g_V_flow_ = 1.4 x 10^57^ ergs and is explained as produced by supernova explosions and stellar mass loss winds generated during a process of steady star formation with SFR=150 M_sun_ yr^-1^ over a time scale of t_SFR_ = 2 x 10^7^ yr. The amount and energy distribution of the ionizing photons generated in the star formation process are sufficient to account for the large infrared and Hα luminosities, while the shape of the spectrum is not hard enough to explain the Seyfert 2-type excitation conditions. These properties are interpreted under the scenario of a quasar-type central nucleus obscured by a huge amount of gas/dust clouds where the massive star formation is taking place.
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Colina et al. (1991) studied this question.