Hundreds of Milky Way Satellites and a Fundamental Curve Connecting Dark Matter Halos to Galaxies

We consider bias corrections to the numerous newly discovered dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph) bound to the Milky Way and conclude that there may be hundreds yet to be discovered. Future searches for these galaxies promise to provide important constraints on the low‐luminosity threshold of galaxy formation. We go on to consider how these dwarfs fit on galactic scaling relations and introduce an alternative to the fundamental plane space. This space clearly reveals a fundamental curve upon which the Galactic satellites, dEs, giant ellipticals, and intracluster light distributions all lie, and cleanly seperates globular clusters and dSphs. This fundamental curve allows us to place dwarf spheroidals in a unified empirical framework that directly connects all other pressure‐supported stellar systems embedded in dark matter halos.