How Milky Way differs from other galaxies

New York, Sept 21: Our galaxy, which is home to Earth and its solar system, might not be as “typical” as previously thought. Therefore, Milky Way-based models to understand other galaxies of the universe could be misleading, new research suggests. “We use the Milky Way and its surroundings to study absolutely everything,” said Marla Geha of Yale University in the US. “Hundreds of studies come out every year about dark matter, cosmology, star formation, and galaxy formation, using the Milky Way as a guide. But it’s possible that the Milky Way is an outlier,” Geha said. The Milky Way is host to several dozen smaller galaxy satellites. These smaller galaxies orbit around the Milky Way and are useful in understanding the Milky Way itself. Early results from the Satellites Around Galactic Alogs (SAGA) Survey, supported by the US tiol Science Foundation indicate that the Milky Way’s satellites are much more tranquil than other systems of comparable luminosity and environment. Many satellites of those “sibling” galaxies are actively pumping out new stars, but the Milky Way’s satellites are mostly inert, the researchers found. This is significant, according to the researchers, because many models for what we know about the universe rely on galaxies behaving in a fashion similar to the Milky Way. (IANS)