  We report the detection of upper main sequence stars and red giant branch
stars in the halo of an amorphous galaxy, NGC3077. The observations were made
using Wide Field Planetary Camera~2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The
red giant branch luminosity function in I-band shows a sudden discontinuity at
I = 24.0 +- 0.1 mag. Identifying this with the tip of the red giant branch
(TRGB), and adopting the calibration provided by Lee, Freedman, & Madore (1993)
and the foreground extinction of A_B = 0.21 mag, we obtain a distance modulus
of (m-M)_0 = 27.93 +- 0.14(random) +- 0.16(sys). This value agrees well with
the distance estimates of four other galaxies in the M81 Group. In addition to
the RGB stars, we observe a concentration of upper main sequence stars in the
halo of NGC3077, which coincides partially with a feature known as the
``Garland''. Using Padua isochrones, these stars are estimated to be <150 Myrs
old. Assuming that the nearest encounter between NGC3077 and M81 occurred 280
Myrs ago as predicted by the numerical simulations (Yun 1997), the observed
upper main sequence stars are likely the results of the star formation
triggered by the M81-NGC3077 tidal interaction.

Astrophysics