A low surface brightness galaxy or LSB galaxy is a diffuse galaxy with a surface brightness that is one magnitude lower than the ambient night sky.
Most LSBs are dwarf galaxies which most of their baryonic matter is still neutral gaseous hydrogen not locked up in stars. They appear to have over 95% of their mass as non-baryonic dark matter. There appears to be no supernova activity in these galaxies. It is estimated that 90% of all galaxies are LSB galaxies, not high-surface-brightness types. Currently around 3000 are catalogued (2005).
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Last updated: 06-05-2005 07:22:33
