The Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies at Redshift of z=0-0.15 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)

Abstract

This work aims to use the color distribution of galaxies to differentiate between blue and red galaxies. The photometric data of 300000 galaxies at redshift of z = 0 – 0.15 were collected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Three redshift ranges were considered for the purpose of this work: 100000 galaxies at z = 0-0.05, 100000 galaxies at z = 0.05-0.1 and 100000 galaxies at z = 0.1-0.15. The color distributions for all redshift ranges were determined. The results have clearly shown that the color distributions for all redshift ranges are bimodal. One of the two peaks corresponds to the blue galaxies (young and star-forming galaxies), whereas the other peak corresponds to the red galaxies (old and non-star-forming galaxies). Therefore, the color distribution of galaxies can be considered as an efficient tool to distinguish between blue and red galaxies.

Keywords

• Classification of Galaxies
• Formation and Evolution of Galaxies
• Photometric Data