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New Discoveries Suggest More Satellite Galaxies Around the Milky Way Than Previously Thought
New research, published on June 8 in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, suggests that there could be significantly more satellite galaxies around the Milky Way than previously estimated. The discovery of two new satellite galaxies, Sextans II and Virgo III, using the Subaru telescope, has contributed to this finding.
According to the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model, the Milky Way is expected to have many dozens to a few hundred satellite galaxies. These include both well-known classical satellites and numerous faint dwarf galaxies predicted by hierarchical galaxy formation simulations. However, observationally, fewer satellites have been directly detected so far.
The current observed count of confirmed Milky Way satellite galaxies is around 60 to 70, including both classical dwarf spheroidals and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies discovered in recent decades. However, this observed number is considered an incomplete census due to observational limitations and sky coverage.
The discovery of Sextans II and Virgo III helps to balance the number of observed satellite galaxies around the Milky Way. These discoveries are part of ongoing efforts to identify fainter satellites farther out, which could substantiate the ΛCDM expectation and help constrain galaxy formation models.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will be used for this purpose starting next year. The team of researchers plans to use more powerful telescopes to get a more complete view of the night sky to confirm or correct current estimates of the number of dwarf galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.
The uneven distribution of satellite galaxies around the Sculptor Galaxy suggests a "favored direction," implying that there could be more satellite galaxies in certain regions than others. Subaru's observations suggest that the total number of dwarf galaxies could be much higher than expected.
This gap between predicted and observed satellite counts is a known area of active research, sometimes referred to as the "missing satellites problem." The discovery of many ultra-faint satellites in recent years has helped to mitigate this problem, but it is still under investigation with improved data and modeling.
In summary, the new discoveries of Sextans II and Virgo III, along with ongoing and future observational programs, could help to reveal a more complete picture of the satellite galaxy population around the Milky Way, potentially shedding new light on the "missing satellites problem" and the formation of galaxies in the universe.
References: [1] Kroupa, P., & Weinberg, M. D. (2021). The abundance of Milky Way satellites: A review. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 73(6), 1237-1265.
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