Sandra Faber

Sandra Faber is an American astronomer whose research shaped understanding of galaxy structure, formation, and evolution. She co-discovered the Faber–Jackson relation and helped identify the Great Attractor.

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Faber–Jackson relation: An empirical scaling relation linking the luminosity of an elliptical galaxy to the velocity dispersion of its stars. Faber co-discovered this relation, which made stellar motions a tool for estimating galaxy luminosities.
Velocity dispersion: A measure of the spread in the velocities of stars or other objects within a system. It is the stellar-motion quantity at the core of the Faber–Jackson relation.
Robert Jackson: An astronomer who collaborated with Sandra Faber on the luminosity–velocity dispersion relation for elliptical galaxies. Their joint 1976 study gave the Faber–Jackson relation its name.
Galaxy luminosity function: A statistical description of the number of galaxies at different luminosities in a specified volume. Faber’s surveys and scaling work helped characterize the distribution of galaxy brightnesses.
Great Attractor: A region of unusually strong gravitational influence associated with the bulk motion of galaxies in the nearby universe. Faber’s team helped reveal this large-scale concentration by mapping galaxy motions.
Elliptical galaxy: A galaxy with a smooth, rounded shape and little apparent organized structure in its stellar distribution. Faber’s scaling relation was established for these galaxies.
Alan Dressler: An American astronomer known for research on galaxy clusters, galaxy evolution, and the discovery of the Great Attractor. Dressler and Faber were among the astronomers who identified the Great Attractor.
Cosmic distance ladder: A sequence of methods for measuring distances to astronomical objects across progressively larger scales. Galaxy scaling relations can help estimate distances beyond the reach of direct stellar measurements.
Galaxy formation and evolution: The processes by which galaxies form, change their structure and contents, and interact across cosmic time. This broad research area frames Faber’s decades of work on how galaxies develop.
Galaxy redshift survey: A systematic catalog of galaxies with measured positions and spectra, including redshifts used to infer distances and motions. Redshift surveys let Faber and collaborators map galaxy distributions and large-scale flows.