Faint blue galaxy


The faint blue galaxy problem in astrophysics first arose with observations starting in 1978 that there were more galaxies with a bolometric magnitude > 22 than then-current theory predicted. Galaxies can appear faint because they are small or because they are far away. Neither explanation, nor any combination, initially matched the observations. The distribution of these galaxies has since been found to be consistent with cosmic inflation, measurements of the cosmic microwave background, and a nonzero cosmological constant, that is, with the existence of the now-accepted dark energy. It thus serves as a confirmation of supernova observations requiring dark energy.
A second problem arose in 1988, with even deeper observations showing a much greater excess of faint galaxies. These are now interpreted as dwarf galaxies experiencing large bursts of stellar formation, resulting in blue light from young, massive stars. Thus F.B.G.s are extremely bright for their size and distance.
Most F.B.G.s appear between red-shift 0.5 and 2. It is believed that they disappear as separate objects by merger with other galaxies.