Typical present elliptical galaxies are dominated by old stellar populations: their brightest short-lived stars have disappeared, leaving faint long-lived stars and stellar remnants, so luminosity per unit stellar mass is low. Ongoing star formation in many spiral galaxies and irregular galaxies supplies luminous young stars, giving a smaller stellar mass-to-light ratio in a fixed band; dark matter, the initial mass function and aperture must also be specified if the quoted ratio is dynamical.
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