this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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...According to the standard cosmological model, small galaxies merge over time in a chaotic process to form larger ones, leaving behind swarms of faint dwarf galaxies that orbit massive host galaxies in an almost random arrangement...Instead of being randomly spread around their host galaxy, as the standard model of cosmology predicts, over 80% of these dwarf galaxies are concentrated on one side of the Andromeda galaxy...Specifically, all but one of Andromeda's satellites lie within 107 degrees of the line pointing towards the Milky Way, a region covering only 64% of the host galaxy's surroundings..."We have to look at more than three hundred simulated systems to find just one that is similarly extreme in its asymmetry as observed." This makes Andromeda an extreme outlier, defying cosmological expectations.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Specifically, all but one of Andromeda's satellites lie within 107 degrees of the line pointing towards the Milky Way

Could gravity have something to do with this? In that both galaxies are pulling toward each other and are doomed to merge?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I'm curious about the orbital parameters of the companion galaxies. Maybe we're just looking at them during a period of conjunction? Like if you look at our Solar System, sometimes all of the planets are on the same side of the sun.