Dwarf Galaxies – Fossils of Galaxy Evolution

Dwarf galaxies are the most common type of galaxy in the Universe and
include the most dark-matter-dominated objects known. They offer
intriguing insights into evolutionary processes at low halo masses
and low metallicities. Moreover, as survivors of a once much more
numerous population of building blocks of larger galaxies, they are
key to understanding very early star formation processes. The Local
Group and particularly the Milky Way’s dwarf galaxy entourage offer
us the unique possibility to compare in detail dwarf and Galactic
populations. This is an important step towards quantifying the
magnitude and time scales of dwarf contributions to the build-up of
the Milky Way and allows us to test predictions of cosmological
theories and hierarchical structure formation