Journal
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume 490, Issue 1, Pages 97-101Publisher
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200809958
Keywords
galaxies: luminosity function, mass function
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Aims. We investigate the dependence of the luminosity-diameter relation of galaxies on the environment. Methods. This study is based on a comparison between the 80 galaxies in the Shapley-Ames Catalog that are located within a distance of 10 Mpc, and the luminosity-diameter relation for galaxies in great clusters such as Virgo and Coma. Results. A relatively tight linear correlation is observed between the absolute magnitudes and the logarithms of the linear diameters of galaxies located within 10 Mpc. Surprisingly this observed power-law relationship appears to be almost independent of environment and local mass density as defined by Karachentsev & Malakov. However, at a given luminosity, early-type galaxies are ( on average) slightly more compact than are objects of a later type. Unexpectedly the present results appear to indicate that the luminosity-diameter relation for the galaxies within 10 Mpc is indistinguishable from what is observed in the much denser Virgo cluster. Conclusions. Galaxies appear to form an almost one-dimensional family in parameter space. It remains a mystery why the luminosity-diameter
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