Galactic Neighborhood Watch

Gurtina Besla

Post-doc, Columbia University

The Milky Way and its neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are surrounded by a number of smaller satellite galaxies. You may think because these systems are in our galactic backyard that we have learned all there is to know about them, but a number of surprises have been revealed over the past few years. I'll discuss some of the latest discoveries and how they might tell us more about the Milky Way's future collision with Andromeda.