"Discovery of Micro 'Galaxy' Orbiting Milky Way Challenges Galactic Classification"

Astronomers have discovered a faint and tiny collection of stars, Ursa Major III / UNIONS 1 (UMa3/U1), orbiting the Milky Way, possibly dominated by dark matter and challenging our understanding of galaxy formation. The system, located 30,000 light-years away, consists of around 60 10-billion-year-old stars and may be either a dwarf galaxy or a star cluster. The stars are gravitationally bound together, and the team's analysis suggests that dark matter is responsible for holding them in their group. This discovery may have implications for the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model and could potentially redefine the concept of a 'galaxy.'