Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way

The Milky Way has several smaller galaxies gravitationally bound to it, as part of the Milky Way subgroup, which is part of the local galaxy cluster, the Local Group.[1]

There are 61 small galaxies confirmed to be within 420 kiloparsecs (1.4 million light-years) of the Milky Way,[2] but not all of them are necessarily in orbit, and some may themselves be in orbit of other satellite galaxies. The only ones visible to the naked eye are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which have been observed since prehistory. Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006 suggest the Magellanic Clouds may be moving too fast to be orbiting the Milky Way.[3] Of the galaxies confirmed to be in orbit, the largest is the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, which has a diameter of 2.6 kiloparsecs (8,500 ly)[4] or roughly a twentieth that of the Milky Way.

  1. ^ David G. Turner (15 August 2013). "An Eclectic View of our Milky Way Galaxy". Canadian Journal of Physics. 92 (9) (published September 2013): 959–963. arXiv:1310.0014. Bibcode:2014CaJPh..92..959T. doi:10.1139/cjp-2013-0429. S2CID 118390693.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference satellitecensus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Press release: Magellanic Clouds May Be Just Passing Through". Harvard University. January 9, 2007.
  4. ^ Karachentsev, I. D.; Karachentseva, V. E.; Hutchmeier, W. K.; Makarov, D. I. (2004). "A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies". The Astronomical Journal. 127 (4): 2031–2068. Bibcode:2004AJ....127.2031K. doi:10.1086/382905.