Our galactic neighbor Andromeda has a bunch of satellite galaxies — and they’re weirdly pointing at us

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The neighboring Galaxy Andromeda (Messenger 31, or M31) seems to wear an unbalanced arrangement of satellite galaxies that challenge scientific models, which also tries to discover the reason for the presence of many members of this galaxy in our direction. All satellites are located in the M31 with the exception of one of the M31 alongside the Andromeda spiral that faces the Wilk Way – The Odde Out galaxies that were the Messenger 110, which can easily visible in the amateur images of Andromeda.

“M31 is the only system that we know about this degree of lack of consistency,” said Kosuki Jimmy Canissa of the Institute of Fortic Fluki at the University of Potsdam in Germany.

according to CosmoplasmismStandard model, universe Full with a vast clouds from Dark material. Inside these clouds, large Galaxies like Andromeda And milky way Grow – and they grow to merge With countless dwarf galaxies that have been withdrawn attractiveness From the dark matter. The dwarf galaxies we see around large galaxies today are the remains of this training process. According to this image of “hierarchical growth”, these dwarf satellite galaxies should spread randomly around large galaxies. However, this is not what astronomers find.

A large part of the M31 dwarf satellite is limited to a plane around the Andromeda galaxy, He also confirmed Earlier in 2025 by Hubble Space TelescopeA similar satin plane is around the Milky Way. There is also initial evidence on a satellite plane around another nearby galaxy, Centaurus A. For galaxies further, it is difficult to find faded dwarf galaxies and measure the distance to them, so astronomers cannot say with certainty what these systems do. However, even it is difficult to clarify satellite scientists in the standard of cosmology.

Now, the M31 and the satellites are more mysterious, as almost all satellites have been placed on the M31 side that faces the Milky Way.

The new simulation written by Kanehisa, along with his colleagues Potsdam Marcel Pawlowski and Noam Libeskind, shows that according to the standard of cosmological science, the possibilities of such a balanced arrangement are less than 0.3 %. However, our closest galaxy is to hit these difficulties. So when is the coincidence that it is a coincidence, and when does a window open in a deeper mystery?

Dwarf galaxies are all M31 orbits at different speeds and distances; Within another billion years, they will spread more. Therefore, on his face, the current alignment can be considered just a coincidence. However, the low possibility of this coincidence means that this type of coincidence that scientists face is difficult to faith.

If something appears in the universe in a certain way, this usually causes something like this. However, there is no fixed evidence indicating any specific interpretation yet, otherwise this alignment is present now, its case must be modern.

“The following is speculation, but I expect the main perpetrator behind the contrast of the M31 system with the cosmic expectations that the history of the unique accumulation will be.” “The fact that we see the satellites in the M31 in this unstable composition today — which is strange, at the very least- may indicate that many have fallen recently, and may be related to the main integration that is believed to have witnessed Andromeda about three billion years ago.”

This main merger guarantees a medium -sized galaxy consumed by the larger Andromeda galaxy. Hubble Space Telescope is modern Deep diving in Andromeda I managed to track the disorder in the M31, which was left by the merger in its aftermath: currents of stars that were informed of the galaxy that is eaten by the M31 and the production of an explosion from the formation of stars. However, even if the dwarf galaxies are the new expatriates who failed to integrate the galaxy, it still completely explains the reason they all besides the M31 that faces the Milky Way galaxies.

Another idea, well, can dousy galaxies indicate on our side from M31 literally to the perpetrator? Not so quickly. If our milk plays a role, we may expect our non -balanced dwarf satellite system to display their M31 – but they do not do it, and the tidal forces between the two galaxies are not strong enough to withdraw the M31 dwarves to this arrangement.

There are also some warnings that must be observed about the unlikely mode that the M31 satellites have shown.

Microbial data related to the movement of dwarfs for only four M31 moons (five if IC 10 is calculated, a disputed member in the M31 system), which means that simulation can be a bit harsh. However, astronomers aim to determine the movements of at least dozens of M31 dwarves to high accuracy within another year or two with the issuance of the following data set of Gay Astrometric mission.

“Once we have a more essential sample of M31 dwarves with appropriate movements, we must be in a better position to study the development of time for the unlike symmetry,” Kinhisa said. In other words, we will be able to better understand the time when this alignment can remain in place.

Another warning is that there is possible that there are many unveiled iris galaxies, not yet discovered, about the M31. We know this is likely that the standard of cosmology expects that there should be more dousy satellites around both M31 and our Milky Way method of what we have now found. These undiscovered dwarves will be small and contain a few stars, making them difficult to identify. In fact, the fare of the dwarf is the most known fainting around the M31, which bears its name Andromeda xxxvIt was found on the other side of the M31 and is not located in the unbalanced style of others.

Kenyisa said: “We need to wait and know whether the universal asymmetry still exists with the discovery of deadly dwarves, although if we find that the brighter dwarves participated in the symmetry, this would also raise some questions related to their origin,” Kenyisa said.

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– Mood stars can destroy our view of thousands of outer planets, and finds the Hubble telescope

The final warning is that perhaps alignment of the M31 system is not likely as we think. A few galaxies outside our local group have been appointed dwarf families in detail – the galaxies are very far and very faded, and those that we can discover do not have accurate measurements from a distance, so we cannot say with certainty any aspect of the galaxy that they do.

“We cannot yet make sure that similar extremist systems are not present there, or that such systems will be importantly rare,” said Canissa.

The Andromeda Galaxy family of dwarves is a mystery. First, the unusual flat plane around it was more than half of it, and now this is unstable. It appears only that it is sometimes our closest neighbors who turn more strange to us.

The results were published on April 11 in the magazine Nature astronomy.