Our Galaxy in Context: Satellite Galaxies around the Milky Way and its Siblings

The Milky Way’s satellite galaxies provide critical clues to how low mass galaxies form and to the nature of dark matter. Yet the Milky Way itself is a single realization of a Milky Way-like galaxy halo. I will review recent studies of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy population and surveys to put the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies in context, highlighting the SAGA Survey. The SAGA Survey aims to measure the distribution of satellite galaxies around 100 systems analogous to the Milky Way. I will discuss results on the quenched fraction of satellites, luminosity functions, radial distributions and more, comparing to the Milky Way itself and predictions from simulation.