Our Strange Neighbors: Satellite Galaxies of the Milky Way

A study by Strigari et al (Nature 454, 1096 (2008)) shows the puzzling discoverythat the integrated mass of the Milky Way dwarf satellites are consistent withthem having a common mass of about 10^7 M_sun, suggesting that they could be theprimordial building blocks in galaxy formation, introducing a new scale ingalaxy formation and for the clustering of dark matter. We ask to completeXMMNewton observations of the full sample of known dSphs in order to drawconclusions about their formation and source content deducible from their Xrayemission. The proposed programme represents an XMMNewton legacy for the searchfor dark matter signatures. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]