Astronomers have discovered a previously unknown pair of potential satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. The location of these dwarf galaxies suggests that hundreds of other unknown mini-galaxies could be hiding around us — potentially challenging our understanding of the galaxy's edges.
Related: The Milky Way will be visible without a telescope this summer. Here are the key nights to watch for. However, the discoveries do not help solve the missing satellites problem. Instead, the location and orientation of these potential satellites hints that there are even more satellite galaxies than scientists initially realized. This raises a new problem, which researchers have dubbed the"too many satellites problem."
Researchers discovered the UCDs using the Hyper Suprime-Cam attached to Japan's Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii. This instrument has spent the last few years searching a region of space around 33 light-years across. Based on the estimated 220 satellite galaxies postulated by the missing satellites problem, an area of this size should have around four satellite galaxies on average, Universe Today recently reported.