Effective radius

This article is about astronomy. For cloud drops, see Cloud drop effective radius.

Half light radius R_e encloses half of the total light emitted by an object

The effective radius ( $R_e$ ) of a galaxy is the radius at which half of the total light of the system is emitted.^[1]^[2] This assumes the galaxy has either intrinsic spherical symmetry or is at least circularly symmetric as viewed in the plane of the sky. Alternatively, a half-light contour, or isophote, may be used for spherically and circularly asymmetric objects.

$R_e$ is an important length scale in de Vaucouleurs ${\sqrt[ {4}]R}$ law, which characterizes a specific rate at which surface brightness decreases as a function of radius:

I(R)=I_{e}\cdot e^{{-7.67\left({\sqrt[ {4}]{{\frac R{R_{e}}}}}-1\right)}}

where $I_e$ is the surface brightness at $R=R_{e}$ . At $R = 0$ ,

I(R=0)=I_{e}\cdot e^{{7.67}}\approx 2000\cdot I_{e}

Thus, the central surface brightness is approximately $2000\cdot I_{e}$ .

References

↑ "Half-light Radius". Swinburne University. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
↑ Binney, James; Tremaine, Scott (2008). Galactic Dynamics (Second ed.). Princeton Series in Astrophysics. p. 21. ISBN 9780691130279.

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Effective radius

See also

References