Galaxies could be twice as bright if not for a lot of dust

William Atkins
Friday, 16 May 2008 07:18

Science - Space

In fact, the model found that interstellar dust blocks about 50% of the light coming to Earth, instead of the previously thought percentage of 10%.

Driver exclaims, "I was shocked by the sheer scale of the effect. Most people just kind of said, 'We suspect dust is a minor problem.' I spent much of my career working on deep images from Hubble and I've always ignored dust almost entirely." [Space.com: “New View: Universe Suddenly Twice as Bright”]

The declaration of Driver and his team about more dust surrounding galaxies will most likely force astronomers to alter calculations that they make with regards to the intrinsic brightness of galaxies and other celestial bodies.

In fact, Driver stated, “This is a strong, clear-cut result. We've really got to take dust seriously and we've got to make large adjustments to our magnitude calculations."

The findings within the Driver research study appears in the May 10, 2008 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.