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The Milky Way's 2 biggest satellite galaxies are oddly lonely, study finds

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The Milky Way's system of small, orbiting satellite galaxies is quite unusual, a new study of other galaxies in the local universe has found.

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds , known as the LMC and SMC in shorthand, are the largest satellites of the Milky Way.

SAGA conducted a census of 101 galaxies similar in size and mass to our Milky Way , playing host to 378 satellite galaxies.

Three new research papers describe SAGA's findings, led by Geha, Mao and Risa Wechsler of Stanford University in California .

The papers have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal .

We can learn about the dark matter haloes around other galaxies, their influence on galaxy formation and evolution.