Does Earth reside in one of the most unusual places in the universe?

Data from three large-scale space surveys confirm that the Milky Way monster to which Earth belongs is very different from its peers.

The Milky Way Galaxy , the world to which Earth and everything else in the solar system belongs, is seen as a monster in the galactic world.

It is among the few galaxies that are among the most massive today and has swallowed at least 20 smaller galaxies to reach its current size and mass.

Scientists have recently scoured the universe to find 101 galaxies with masses similar to the Milky Way, which were initially predicted to have similar properties.

But research results have shown the opposite.

The Milky Way, as seen from Chile, is actually a spiral galaxy . Our Earth resides at the edge of its bright stellar disk - (Image: ESO).

According to Universe Today, three large-scale cosmic surveys, SAGA III, SAGA IV and SAGA V, have respectively recorded the satellite systems around the 101 galaxies mentioned above, the star formation characteristics of those 101 satellite systems, and finally modeled these satellite systems.

Comparisons between the Milky Way and 101 seemingly similar galaxies have shown several significant differences.

378 satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and 101 galaxies of similar mass were specifically analyzed. Of these, 4 belong to the Milky Way, including the famous Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC).

There are galaxies with fewer or no satellites, but those with large satellites like the LMC often have many satellites, up to 13. Because the mass of the largest satellite is always proportional to the number of satellites of that galaxy.

Only the Milky Way has a deserted surrounding space with only 4 satellites . That is the first oddity.

A second study based on this data set shows that the closer the satellites are to their parent galaxy, the slower the rate of star formation within them, likely due to the large tug from the parent galaxy's dark matter halo.

The second anomaly appeared: The two satellites of the Milky Way, the LMC and SMC, are both forming stars vigorously despite being very close to the "mother" , while the more distant ones have stopped forming stars.

Scientists believe this oddity may be because the LMC and SMC only recently fell into the Milky Way's dark matter halo, but why the other small satellites stopped forming stars remains unexplained.

Professor Risa Wechsler from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (USA), co-founder of the SAGA project, said the results show that the Milky Way is a type of galaxy that is not typical in the universe.

To understand more about this anomaly that Earth inhabits, we can only continue to search the universe for worlds that are similar in mass to it and – with luck – just as weird.