Galaxy color–magnitude diagram
Chart depicting the relationship between brightness and mass of large star systems
- 2 min read
- 1 chapter
Related on Lably
Through Mass, Galaxy and Spiral galaxy
Features
The diagram has three main features: the red sequence, the green valley, and the blue cloud. The red sequence includes most red galaxies, which are generally elliptical galaxies. The blue cloud includes most blue galaxies, which are generally spirals. In between the two distributions is an underpopulated space known as the green valley which includes a number of red spirals.
Like the comparable Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for stars, galaxy properties are not necessarily completely determined by their location on the color–magnitude diagram. The diagram also shows considerable evolution through time. The red sequence earlier in the evolution of the universe was more constant in color across magnitudes and the blue cloud was not as uniformly distributed but showed sequence progression.
New research suggests the green valley is actually composed of two different populations of galaxies: one of late-type galaxies, where star formation has been quenched due to their gas supplies being shut off followed by the exhaustion of their gas reservoirs for several billion years, and another of early-type galaxies where both the gas supplies and gas reservoirs have been destroyed very quickly, likely because of mergers with other galaxies and/or the presence of an active galactic nucleus.
Recent work has suggested that the traditional interpretation of the colour–magnitude diagram may be affected by the treatment of dust-rich lenticular (S0) galaxies.Inclination-dependent dust corrections can shift some massive lenticular galaxies away from the classical red sequence into a more populated intermediate region termed the "green mountain". In this interpretation, the red sequence itself contains multiple subpopulations, including dust-poor lenticular and elliptical galaxies, while dusty lenticular galaxies may define a distinct evolutionary pathway linked to gas-rich mergers and ongoing low-level star formation.
The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are assumed to lie in the green valley due to their star formation slowing down as a result of both running out of gas.