A team of cosmologists from Durham University has made a groundbreaking discovery that could revolutionize our understanding of the universe. By combining high-resolution supercomputer simulations with new mathematical modeling, they estimate that there may be up to 100 previously unidentified galaxies orbiting the Milky Way.
The Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) theory, which represents our best understanding of how the universe works, predicts that the Milky Way should have significantly more satellite galaxies than scientists have observed. However, recent simulations and observations suggest that the actual number of satellites may be much lower.
Frenk and his colleagues used a novel technique to study the faint halos of dark matter potentially hosting “orphaned” satellite galaxies. They estimated the abundance, distribution, and properties of these “ghost” galaxies and suggested that the Milky Way’s gravity may have stripped them almost completely of their dark matter halos as well as their stellar mass.
The discovery is significant because it could further bolster the reliability of the LCDM theory, the most widely accepted standard model of large-scale cosmology. If future telescopes detect these galaxies directly, it would be a remarkable success for the theory.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/dozens-of-ghost-galaxies-are-orbiting-the-milky-way-astronomers-suspect-2000628971