TITLE: Dwarfs galaxies in the Local Group: insights and unresolved issues
ABSTRACT: Dwarf galaxies are the smallest yet most most abundant cosmological objects in existence. Yet owing to their low luminosity, they can only be seen in the immediate neighborhood of the Milky Way, a region known as the Local Group. Observations of these galaxies can help us understand key aspects of the Local Group including the nature of dark matter, our place in the cosmos, and how our specific corner of the universe is embedded in the large scale structure that surrounds us. Most of these galaxies have only been recently found and since their discovery have presented the paradigm of structure/galaxy formation (known as the LCDM model) with a number of challenges. Specifically, dwarf galaxies in the Local Group appear to cluster on vast thin planes, an as yet unresolved problem for the model. I will present some ideas to explain the origin of this peculiar set up within the LCDM model, as well as the first observations of a similar set-up around a galaxy exterior to the Local Group.