De Vaucouleurs' law
Ley de De Vaucouleurs
- Date
- 1948 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Gérard de Vaucouleurs
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Mathematical function, formulated by Gérard de Vaucouleurs, describing how the surface brightness of an elliptical galaxy varies with apparent distance from its centre.
What it led to
- Reference model for classifying elliptical galaxies
- Comparison with later profiles such as the Jaffe or Dehnen profile
- Standard tool in extragalactic photometry