  Observations for seven infrared luminous starburst galaxies are reported in
the mid-infrared from 8 - 18 microns using the Keck Telescopes with spatial
resolution approaching the diffraction limit. All of the galaxies observed show
evidence of strong interactions based on optical morphologies. For these
galaxies, a substantial fraction, usually more than 50%, of the infrared
luminosity is generated in regions ranging in sizes from 100pc -- 1 Kpc.
Nuclear starbursts often dominate the infrared luminosity, but this is not
always true. In some galaxies, most notably NGC 6090, substantial infrared
luminosity greatly in excess of the nuclear luminosity is generated in regions
associated with the physical interaction between two galaxies. The radio
emission is a good tracer of the location of high luminosity young stars. The
visual/ultraviolet radiation output of the nearby star forming galaxies is
dominated by emission from regions that are generally not producing the copious
infrared luminosity of the systems. The regions of high infrared luminosity in
local starburst galaxies are significantly smaller than the galaxies as a
whole. The integrated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these galaxies
are very different from the SEDs of the regions of star formation. If the SEDs
of star-forming regions in these galaxies reflect the SEDs found in forming
galaxies at high redshift, the distant galaxies should be dominated by the mid
and far-infrared luminosity output far more than the integrated luminous output
of nearby starburst galaxies would suggest.
