An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A subtype of dwarf ellipticals (→ dwarf elliptical galaxy), which are companion to the → Milky Way and other similar galaxies. The first example of such objects was discovered by Harlow Shapley (1938) in the constellation → Sculptor. 22 such galaxies are known currently to orbit the Milky Way and at least 36 exist in the → Local Group of galaxies. Nearby → galaxy clusters such as the → Virgo, → Fornax, → Centaurus, and → Coma clusters contain hundreds to thousands of individual dSph galaxies. These galaxies have very low → surface brightnesses, as low as only 1% that of the → sky background. They are also among the smallest, least luminous galaxies known. Most of the radiation from dSph galaxies is emitted by stars in the optical portion of the → electromagnetic spectrum. The lack of strong → emission lines, → infrared, or → radio emission suggests that these galaxies are generally devoid of → interstellar medium. The velocities of stars within dSph galaxies are so high that them must be disrupting. However, the bulk of mass in these galaxies might be undetected. Dynamical models that include → dark matter do adequately explain the → velocity dispersion of the stars in all dSph systems. In the most extreme cases, only 1% of the mass of the galaxy is visible. Many of the Local Group dSph galaxies show evidence for → star formation more recent than 10 Gyr.

→ dwarf; → spheroidal; → galaxy.

A galaxy that belongs to the spiral class but is significantly smaller.

→ dwarf; → spiral; → galaxy.

A star that burns its hydrogen content to produce its energy and therefore belongs to the main-sequence luminosity class.

→ dwarf; → star.

A → starburst galaxy that is a → dwarf galaxy. Examples include: the → dwarf irregular galaxy IC 10, the compact dwarf irregular Henize 2-10, and the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5253.

→ dwarf; → starburst; → galaxy.

A → white dwarf whose spectrum shows metal lines only; no H or He.

D short for → dwarf; Z a convention; → white.

A type of → brown dwarf with an → effective temperature ranging from about 2200 K to about 1300 K, corresponding to luminosities about 4 x 10^-4 to 3 x 10^-5 times that of the Sun. L dwarfs are intermediate in temperature between M and → T dwarfs. Their spectra in the optical show weak titanium oxide (TiO) and vanadium oxide (VO) absorption lines and strong metallic hydrides CrH (8611 and 9969 Å) and FeH (8692 and 9896 Å). Also are present strong neutral atomic lines of alkali metals Na I (8183, 8195 Å), K I (7665, 7699 Å), Rb I (7800, 7948 Å), Cs I (8521, 8943 Å), and sometimes Li I (6708 Å). The prototype of the L-dwarf class is → GD 165B. The spectral classification was first defined by Kirkpatrick et al. 1999, ApJ 519, 802 and Martin et al. 1999, AJ 118, 2466.

For the reasoning behind the choice of the letter L, see Kirkpatrick et al. 1993, ApJ 406, 701; → dwarf.

A star whose spectrum is dominated by the absorption bands of → titanium oxide (TiO) and → vanadium oxide (VO) and has many neutral metal lines. The → effective temperature of M dwarfs ranges from about 3850 to 2600 K. They are low mass stars with masses ranging from 0.6 times that of the Sun at spectral type M0 to less than 0.1 → solar masses. M dwarfs are very abundant, they account for about 70-80% of stars in the → Galactic disk. The nearest star to the Sun, → Proxima Centauri, is an M dwarf.

M, letter of alphabet in the → Harvard classification; → dwarf.

A hot star belonging to one of the two groups of → EHB stars or → pre-WD stars.

→ OB star; → subdwarf.

A small, cool, very faint, main sequence star whose surface temperature is under about 3500 K. Red dwarfs generally have masses of less than one-third that of the Sun. In the neighbourhood of the Sun the majority of stars are red dwarfs.

→ red; → dwarf.

A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way discovered only in 1994 since most of it is obscured by the Galactic disc. At only 50,000 light years distant from our Galaxy's core, it is travelling in a polar orbit around the Galaxy. Our Galaxy is slowly devouring it, as evidenced by a filament which stretches around the Milky Way's core like a gossamer loop. It is only about 10,000 light-years in diameter, in comparison to the Milky Way's diameter of 100,000 light years. It is populated by old yellowish stars has four known globular clusters: M54, Arp 2, Terzan 7, and Terzan 8. It should not be confused with the → Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy.

→ Sagittarius; → dwarf; → elliptical; → galaxy.

A dwarf irregular galaxy, discovered in 1977, that is a member of the Local Group of galaxies. It has a diameter of 1,500 light-years and lies about 3.5 million light-years away. SagDIG contains as much as about 10⁸ solar masses of H I gas and is one of the most metal-poor galaxies. It should not be confused with the → Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.

→ Sagittarius; → dwarf; → irregular; → galaxy.

A → dwarf elliptical galaxy that is a satellite of our → Milky Way. It lies about 285,000 → light-years away in the constellation → Sculptor, and has an → absolute magnitude of -11.28 and a mass of about 3 million → solar masses. The Sculptor Dwarf is a → metal-deficient galaxy containing only 4 percent of the oxygen and carbon elements in our own Galaxy.

→ Sculptor; → dwarf; → elliptical; → galaxy.

A metal-poor main-sequence star with spectral type later than M7 and luminosity class VI. They are population II dwarfs which appear less luminous than their solar metallicity counterparts due to the dearth of metals in their atmospheres. Subdwarfs are halo members with high proper motions and large heliocentric velocities. They are important tracers of the chemical enrichment history of the Galaxy and belong to the first generation of stars formed in the Galaxy (at least 10 billion years old).

→ sub-; → dwarf.

A type of → brown dwarf with an → effective temperature between about 1200 K and 500 K, i.e. colder than the preceding type → L dwarf. The spectra of T dwarfs are characterized by the presence of → methane (CH₄) bands in the → near infrared. The presence of these bands, broad H₂O features, and H₂ collision-induced absorption radically alter the spectral energy distributions of T dwarfs compared to a black body at the same temperature. Hence near-infrared colors become increasingly blue (J - K ~ 0) as compared to L dwarfs. The first T dwarf, called → Gl 229B, was discovered by Nakajima et al. (1995, Nature 378, 463). The spectral classification scheme (subtypes T0 to T9) currently used was defined by Burgasser et al. (2002, ApJ 564, 421).

For the reasoning behind the choice of the letter T, see Kirkpatrick et al. 1993, ApJ 406, 701; → dwarf.

A self-gravitating entity which has been formed from tidal material expelled during interactions between larger galaxies. TDGs are typically found at the tip of tidal tails at distances between 20 and 100 kpc from the merging galaxies, of which at least one should be a gas-rich galaxy. They are gas-rich objects that can be as massive as the Magellanic Clouds, form stars at a rate which might be as high as in blue compact dwarf galaxies and seem dynamically independent from their parent galaxies.

→ tidal; → dwarf; → galaxy.

A type of very bright compact → stellar system (-14 ≤ M_V≥ -12) that is intermediate between → globular clusters (GCs) and → compact elliptical galaxies (cEs). With masses of M > 2 × 10⁶ Msun and radii > 10 → parsecs (pc), UCDs are among the densest stellar systems in the Universe. Nevertheless, the nature and origin of these objects is still widely debated. Early interpretations suggested that UCDs could be the most massive GCs or possibly the → tidally stripped remnants of → dwarf galaxies. However, there is evidence that both formation mechanisms could contribute to the UCD population. → Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been confirmed in most UCDs with masses M > 10⁷ Msun. The most massive UCD discovered to date, M59-UCD3 (M_* ~ 2 × 10⁸ Msun, radius ~ 25 pc), hosts a SMBH (Ahn et al., 2018, arxiv/1804.02399, and references therein).

→ ultracompact; → dwarf; → galaxy.

A star-like objects with an → effective temperature of less than 2,700 K. Ultracool dwarfs constitute a heterogeneous group including stars of extremely low mass as well as → brown dwarfs, and represent about 15% of the population of astronomical objects near the Sun.

→ ultra-; → cool; → dwarf.

A compact star of high surface temperature, low luminosity, and high density (10⁵-10⁸ g cm^-3), with roughly the mass of the Sun (mean mass ~ 0.6 M_sun) and the radius of the Earth (R ~ 0.01 R_sun), representing the end-point of the evolution of all stars with masses less then ~ 5-9 → solar masses. A white dwarf is what remains after the central star of a → planetary nebula fades and becomes cool. The → Chandrasekhar limit of 1.43 solar masses is the highest mass that a white dwarf can achieve before electron → degeneracy pressure is unable to support it. In the → Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, white dwarfs form a well-defined sequence around 8 magnitudes fainter than the main sequence. They are composed of a core of carbon and oxygen nuclei and degenerate electrons surrounded by a thin shell of helium and an outer skin of hydrogen. White dwarf's radiation is the leftover heat from the star's past when its core was an active nuclear reactor. The star slowly cools as heat escapes through the non-degenerate envelope. → white dwarf crystallization; → cooling time; → Mestel theory. The first white dwarf to be discovered was Sirius B, the → companion of Sirius. White dwarfs are divided into several types, according to their spectral features, which depend on the type of → shell burning that dominated as it became a → planetary nebula: → DA white dwarf; → DB white dwarf; → DC white dwarf; → DO white dwarf; → DZ white dwarf; → DQ white dwarf. For a review see Kepler and Brdaley (1995, Baltic Astron. 4, 166).

The term white dwarf was coined by the Dutch-American astronomer Willem Luyten (1899-1994) in 1922, from → white + → dwarf.

In the → Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, the evolutionary track followed by a → low-mass or an → intermediate-mass star when it can no longer produce thermonuclear energy. The track starts at the end of the → horizontal branch to lead the star to a → white dwarf phase.

→ white; → dwarf; → cooling; → track.

The most important phenomenon occurring during → white dwarf evolution, which results from its cooling. Crystallization is a → phase transition whereby → latent heat is released. At the cooler end of a white dwarf's life (→ cooling time), the → thermal energy of nuclei, which are positively charged ions, becomes small and the effects of electrostatic interaction on the motion of ions become important. The ions repel each other and their distribution will be such that the → Coulomb energy per ion is a minimum. This will cause the ions to form crystal-like lattice structures. As the star cystallizes it releases latent heat, providing an additional energy source that slows the cooling process compared to the → Mestel theory. Once the bulk of the white dwarf is crystalline, heat can travel through the star more easily and the white dwarf cools faster.

→ white; → dwarf; → crystallization.