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Surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) is a secondary distance indicator used to estimate distances to galaxies. It is useful to 100 Mpc ( parsec ). The method measures the variance in a galaxy's light distribution arising from fluctuations in the numbers of and luminosities of individual stars per resolution element.
The surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) method takes advantage of the use of CCD cameras on telescopes. Because of spatial fluctuations in a galaxy's surface brightness, some pixels on these cameras will pick up more stars than others. As distance increases, the picture will become increasingly smoother.
A truly dark sky has a surface brightness of 2 × 10 −4 cd m −2 or 21.8 mag arcsec −2. [9] [clarification needed] The peak surface brightness of the central region of the Orion Nebula is about 17 Mag/arcsec 2 (about 14 milli nits) and the outer bluish glow has a peak surface brightness of 21.3 Mag/arcsec 2 (about 0.27 millinits). [10]
Initial observations of NGC 1052-DF2 used its surface brightness fluctuation to estimate its distance at 19.0 ± 1.7 Mpc. [2] Due to close proximity, it is assumed to be associated with the elliptical galaxy NGC 1052 and to lie at a distance of about 80 Kpc from NGC 1052.
At least two methods have been used to estimate the distance to NGC 1316: surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) in 2003 [2] and planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) in 2006. [3] Being a lenticular galaxy, it is not suitable to apply the cepheid variable method [why?]. Using SBF, a distance estimate of 20.0 ± 1.6 Mpc [2] was computed.
The surface brightness fluctuations distance measurement technique estimates distances to spiral galaxies based on the graininess of the appearance of their bulges. The distance measured to NGC 147 using this technique is 2.67 ± 0.18 Mly (870 ± 60 kpc ). [ 2 ]
The infrared surface brightness fluctuations distance measurement technique estimates distances to spiral galaxies based on the graininess of the appearance of their bulges. The distance measured to M32 using this technique is 2.46 ± 0.09 million light-years (755 ± 28 kpc ). [ 2 ]
The second method is the surface brightness fluctuations method, which uses the grainy appearance of the galaxy's bulge to estimate the distance to it. Nearby galaxy bulges appear very grainy, while more distant bulges appear smooth.