<p>First you must estimate the luminosity. That may be difficult unless the magnitude you have is a bolometric magnitude.</p>

<p>Then you assume some <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass-to-light_ratio" rel="nofollow noreferrer">mass to light ratio</a> (actually mass to luminosity ratio, where in solar units the M/L of the Sun is 1). </p>

<p>The M/L ratios of galaxies depend on galaxy type (and age, metallicity, star forming history) and vary from about 2-10. However, this is just the stellar mass. In most cases these ratios would need to be increased by a factor of 10 to give the total mass of a galaxy, which may be dominated by dark matter. The total M/L ratio of dwarf spheroidals like Tucana is likely to be <span class="math-container">$\sim 100$</span>.</p>

<p>In conclusion, there is no single value of <span class="math-container">$c$</span> that can convert from a magnitude (luminosity) to a mass. Further reading: <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/properties-of-galaxies/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/properties-of-galaxies/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-26T12:57:24.300Z
Thank you for your answer. I just want to ask one more thing. One equation about the absolute magnitude with respect to apparent magnitude and the distance is $M_{abs}=M_{app}-5(logD-1)$. $D$ is the distance in parsecs. After calculating the absolute magnitude  may I use $L_{galaxy}=L_{0}10^{-0.4{M_{abs}}}$ ($L_{0}$ is the zero point luminosity) for the galactic luminosity?
Haliki
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-26T10:00:36.840Z
2018-12-26T10:00:36.840Z
ProfRob
<p>As Rob Jeffries said, you typically assume a value of <span class="math-container">$M/L$</span> to find the mass from luminosity. I want to share a nice problem which guides you through the calculation for NGC1052 in the problem T8 <a href="http://ioaa2018.bjp.org.cn/download/Theory/IOAA2018%20Theoretical%20Competition-final.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. Solutions are available <a href="http://ioaa2018.bjp.org.cn/download/Theory/IOAA2018%20Theoretical%20Solution-final.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-27T19:27:03.033Z
2018-12-27T19:27:03.033Z
Jim Haddocc
<p>Can we estimate the order of the total mass of any galaxy from the apparent magnitude and its distance to us? Just like 
<span class="math-container">\begin{equation}
M_{galaxy}=c\times 10^{8}M_{\odot },
\end{equation}</span>
where <span class="math-container">$c$</span> is a constant (can be arbitrary or ignored, the order is important).
For example mass of the Tucana Dwarf of the Local group isn't known. But its apparent magnitude is 15.7 and average distance is <span class="math-container">$8.8\times10^{5}pc$</span>. How can I estimate its approximate total mass?</p>

<galaxy><distances><mass><apparent-magnitude>
Galactic mass estimation from apparent magnitude and distance
Haliki
# Galactic mass estimation from apparent magnitude and distance

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-26)

Can we estimate the order of the total mass of any galaxy from the apparent magnitude and its distance to us? Just like
\begin{equation}
M\_{galaxy}=c\times 10^{8}M\_{\odot },
\end{equation}
where $c$ is a constant (can be arbitrary or ignored, the order is important).
For example mass of the Tucana Dwarf of the Local group isn't known. But its apparent magnitude is 15.7 and average distance is $8.8\times10^{5}pc$. How can I estimate its approximate total mass?

**Tags:** galaxy, distances, mass, apparent-magnitude


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-12-26. Score: 4

First you must estimate the luminosity. That may be difficult unless the magnitude you have is a bolometric magnitude.

Then you assume some [mass to light ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass-to-light_ratio) (actually mass to luminosity ratio, where in solar units the M/L of the Sun is 1).

The M/L ratios of galaxies depend on galaxy type (and age, metallicity, star forming history) and vary from about 2-10. However, this is just the stellar mass. In most cases these ratios would need to be increased by a factor of 10 to give the total mass of a galaxy, which may be dominated by dark matter. The total M/L ratio of dwarf spheroidals like Tucana is likely to be $\sim 100$.

In conclusion, there is no single value of $c$ that can convert from a magnitude (luminosity) to a mass. Further reading: <https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/properties-of-galaxies/>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you for your answer. I just want to ask one more thing. One equation about the absolute magnitude with respect to apparent magnitude and the distance is $M_{abs}=M_{app}-5(logD-1)$. $D$ is the distance in parsecs. After calculating the absolute magnitude  may I use $L_{galaxy}=L_{0}10^{-0.4{M_{abs}}}$ ($L_{0}$ is the zero point luminosity) for the galactic luminosity?  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2018-12-27. Score: 1

As Rob Jeffries said, you typically assume a value of $M/L$ to find the mass from luminosity. I want to share a nice problem which guides you through the calculation for NGC1052 in the problem T8 [here](http://ioaa2018.bjp.org.cn/download/Theory/IOAA2018%20Theoretical%20Competition-final.pdf). Solutions are available [here](http://ioaa2018.bjp.org.cn/download/Theory/IOAA2018%20Theoretical%20Solution-final.pdf)


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