2014MNRAS.440.1225E

Suggestions have appeared in the literature that the following four pairs of Milky Way and Andromeda satellite galaxies are gravitationally bound: Draco and Ursa Minor, Leo IV and V, Andromeda I and III, and NGC 147 and 185. Assuming that a given pair is gravitationally bound, the Virial theorem provides a crude estimate of its total mass and so its instantaneous tidal radius. In the case of each pair except for Leo IV and Leo V, the estimated tidal radius is inferior to the separation between the two satellites, suggesting that these pairs are not currently gravitationally bound. Their proximities may be explained if each pair condensed from the remnants of a formerly gravitationally bound structure, but such a scenario is in tension with the absence of older pairs with a wider separation.