Abundance and cosmological significance of single galaxies
Abstract
Variations in the number of galaxies brighter than 19th magnitude per unit volume of space are analyzed using data obtained in counts of isolated galaxies and special differential counts of galaxies in the Jagellonian Field. The results show that the fraction of single galaxies among objects brighter than some limit does not exceed 10%. It is suggested that so-called isolated galaxies may actually be peripheral members of nearby dispersed systems of galaxies. An observed rapid decline in the fraction of close pairs of galaxies is found not to agree with the infrequent incidence of single objects. It is concluded that the hypothesis of galaxy fragmentation encounters statistical difficulties as a result of these findings.
- Publication:
-
Astronomicheskii Zhurnal
- Pub Date:
- August 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976AZh....53..686F
- Keywords:
-
- Astronomical Models;
- Cosmology;
- Galaxies;
- Abundance;
- Brightness;
- Fragmentation;
- Galactic Clusters;
- Astrophysics