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Ultra-diffuse galaxies at the crossroads

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There is an ongoing debate as to whether ultra-diffuse galaxies are regular dwarf galaxies with low star formation or massive ‘failed’ objects that quenched their star formation in the early Universe. Current evidence seems to support the former scenario.

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Fig. 1: Representative examples of galaxies with different stellar masses shown at the same physical scale and a similar depth in surface brightness.
Fig. 2: Evolution from a star-forming dwarf galaxy to an ultra-diffuse galaxy.

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Acknowledgements

I thank N. Chamba, P. Mancera-Piña, M. Montes, J. Román and T. Saifollahi for helpful comments. This work was supported by grant PID2019-107427GB-C32 from The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. I acknowledge financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 721463 to the SUNDIAL ITN network, and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), from IAC project P/300624, financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Budget and by the Canary Islands Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the Regional Budget of the Autonomous Community.

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  1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    Ignacio Trujillo

  2. Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    Ignacio Trujillo

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  1. Ignacio Trujillo
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Correspondence to Ignacio Trujillo.

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Trujillo, I. Ultra-diffuse galaxies at the crossroads. Nat Astron 5, 1182–1184 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01388-y

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