Astrophysicists question map of universe

Astrophysicists have revealed that the accepted model of universe is flawed as the dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies does not fit in it.

David Merritt, professor of astrophysics at Rochester Institute of Technology said that the co-orbiting satellite galaxy structures are still in conflict with the distribution of primordial dwarf galaxies.

He further explained that the model predicts that dwarf galaxies should form inside of small clumps of dark matter and that these clumps should be distributed randomly about their parent galaxy but it is observed that the dwarf galaxies belonging to the Milky Way and Andromeda are seen to be orbiting in huge, thin disk-like structures.

According to the standard paradigm, 23 percent of the mass of the universe is shaped by invisible particles known as dark matter.

The conclusions tend to favor an alternate, and much older, model; that the satellites were pulled out from another galaxy when it interacted with the local group galaxies in the distant past and this 'tidal' model can naturally explain why the observed satellites are orbiting in thin disks.

The study is to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.