Dr Kai Wang from our top-rated Physics department has presented his research at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting (NAM2025).
His new findings may reshape how scientists understand our place in the universe.
Dr Wang’s research focuses on the ‘Local Group’ (a pair of dark matter halo that includes our Milky Way and its neighbour Andromeda) and how it is linked to the larger cosmic web, a vast network of matter that stretches across the universe.
His research revealed strong connections between the Local Group and the large-scale structure of the cosmos, suggesting our galactic neighbourhood may not be as representative as previously thought.
Using one of the world’s largest cosmological simulations, AbacusSummit, Dr Wang and his team identified millions of systems similar to our Local Group.
Their findings showed that the environment in which a galaxy group lives significantly affects its structure and kinematics.
In particular, slower-moving halo pairs tended to be found in lighter regions of space and aligned to the large-scale cosmic filaments.
This has big implications for astronomers. For years, scientists were confused over the unusual layout of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies and whether it challenges current theories of the universe.
Dr Wang’s work offers a new explanation: perhaps the peculiarities of our Local Group are not so strange after all, but simply a reflection of its unique cosmic surroundings.
Dr Wang’s research was one of the highlights of NAM2025, which featured a wide range of talks, workshops and public events under the theme of community.
Held at our Teaching and Learning Centre and Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics West, the conference brought together nearly a thousand astronomers, scientists, and science communicators from around the world.
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