 In my time at tomorrow, I've talked a lot about dark matter, that mysterious unseen force in our universe. We can see its gravitational influence, but we can't see any light for any wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum coming from it. Well, a study was recently sent out that may change how we think about dark matter, and this is your space pod for February 22, 2018. Dark matter and our present understanding of it works more often than not in our models of the universe, but this recently published study by the University of Basel's Department of Physics has thrown a wrench in our gears. They focus specifically on structures known as dwarf galaxies. It's not uncommon for a large galaxy to have one, even several. Our own Milky Way has the large and small Magellanic clouds orbiting us, and the overall structure of the universe tells that dark matter should be lumped about all over the place, not evenly distributed. This affects not just the large-scale universe, but also the smaller stuff as well. Of course, smaller stuff here being on a galactic scale. Now galaxies should be flung apart if there was no dark matter, but they stay together. This shows us dark matter's gravitational influence is an actual tangible thing, but this study published in the journal Science earlier this month gave us an unexpected result. These satellite galaxies are expected to orbit completely independent of the galaxy they're under the gravitational influence of. They're supposed to be distributed completely randomly, but with a very detailed observational period of Centaurus A, a bright elliptical galaxy 13 million light-years away from us, astronomers observed the small satellite galaxies in orbit around it to find exactly which trajectory they were following. They expected to find them, of course, in random orbital distribution, but they weren't. Of the 16 satellite galaxies orbiting Centaurus A, 14 of them were all orbiting together in the same trajectory. This does not align with our current models, as they predicted that only half a percent of all satellite galaxies would be doing exactly what we've observed in nature. Coincidence of this is unlikely, as this is the third parent galaxy we've seen with aligned satellite galaxies orbiting it when we include our own Milky Way and our local neighbor Andromeda. Now competing models of the universe may agree in certain areas, but completely disagree in others. And conflicting ideas within our fundamental understanding of the nature of the universe, they're not really cause for concern, but they are cause for even more careful observation, which will hopefully yield us a better understanding overall. Now, thanks for watching The Space Pod, and don't forget to check out this previous week's episode, orbit 11.07. We talk about NASA's upcoming budget, the proposals from the White House, and what we think Congress may do with that, and the numbers and nuts and bolts of that budget as well. And don't forget to like and subscribe to us and tune in to our live show every Saturday at 1,800 coordinated universal time. So, until the next Space Pod, keep exploring.