Live data from Hacker News

James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

smithsonianmag.com

61–70 of 318 posts

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#61
post #9

Potentially a very dumb question, but seeing the difference between cyclones and hurricane on earth (clock-wise, anti-clock-wise)... Does it mean that we are, potentially, on one of two poles(?) of the observable universe, if we're observing most galaxies around us rotating a certain way?

Potentially a very good question!

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#62
post #9

Potentially a very dumb question, but seeing the difference between cyclones and hurricane on earth (clock-wise, anti-clock-wise)... Does it mean that we are, potentially, on one of two poles(?) of the observable universe, if we're observing most galaxies around us rotating a certain way?

My own dumb question …

How does cyclones/hurricanes relate to being “on one of two ‘poles’”?

Do you mean hemisphere?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#63
post #9

Potentially a very dumb question, but seeing the difference between cyclones and hurricane on earth (clock-wise, anti-clock-wise)... Does it mean that we are, potentially, on one of two poles(?) of the observable universe, if we're observing most galaxies around us rotating a certain way?

maybe this is a stupid question, but is it possible that the big bang simply had some kind of clockwise angular momentum to it? how different is that idea from the black hole cosmology concept? I don't really understand how the two fit together

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#64
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that you’d expect a roughly even distribution of clockwise and counterclockwise spins, not all of them to rotate in the same direction.

why? if you subscribe to big bang then all matter got the same "initial kick". would be easier to assume same spin?

So what caused the "initial kick" to favor one side?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#65
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that you’d expect a roughly even distribution of clockwise and counterclockwise spins, not all of them to rotate in the same direction.

why? if you subscribe to big bang then all matter got the same "initial kick". would be easier to assume same spin?

From my understanding, the big bang requires that the proto-universe was in a completely homogenous state that was then pushed out of that equilibrium for some reason. But that reason doesn't require non-zero angular momentum. It only requires that a the proto-universe was homogenous and now the universe isn't. And that is what separates pre and post big bang. I could be wrong, I am not a cosmologist. Would be happy to hear from one though.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#66

Seems like we've got a few of these imbalances now where you'd expect 50:50 but instead it's skewed to one side where nature had a different idea Matter-antimatter ratio Left vs right handed molecules Now galaxy spin directions Maybe there are others I missed too

For the matter-antimatter ratio, you would not expect 50:50, or would you? Because 50:50 would be a highly unstable system? In any case, you would expect that unstable states would be highly unlikely, and it would converge into a stable state. I'm not sure about the other examples. But maybe it's a similar reason that it is not a 50:50 ratio?

Not a physicist, but here is my understanding of the cosmology physics:

High energy can spontaneously form matter antimatter pairs. In the early universe, the heat of the universe was very high, so this was common, constantly happening.

The problem as always if fine tuning. If the early universe was 60-40, that would be understandable. If the early universe was precisely 50-50, that’s fine too. But the universe was 50.0001-49.9999 or something like that, and then all annihilated. It’s too big a difference to easily be random chance, and too small a difference to be easily explained by a starting condition what wasn’t precisely tuned by some mechanism.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#67
But rotation direction depends on the observer. If i see galaxy spinning clockwise, this means someone observing galaxy from behind it sees it rotating counter clockwise. So are we just located so in the universe that we see 2/3 spinning clockwise and another counter?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#68

1. Are they really saying "Because we are in a universe with a preferred spin and black holes have spin, we must be inside a black hole?" Tenuous, no? 2. If we are inside a black hole, where is the singularity?

If the universe is bounded by regions that are further away than the speed of light has time to reach us then that would be an ideal place to look for a singularity. unfortunately it is unmeasurable since so far the speed of light is a hard boundary for what we can measure.

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#69

Seems like we've got a few of these imbalances now where you'd expect 50:50 but instead it's skewed to one side where nature had a different idea Matter-antimatter ratio Left vs right handed molecules Now galaxy spin directions Maybe there are others I missed too

For the matter-antimatter ratio, you would not expect 50:50, or would you? Because 50:50 would be a highly unstable system? In any case, you would expect that unstable states would be highly unlikely, and it would converge into a stable state. I'm not sure about the other examples. But maybe it's a similar reason that it is not a 50:50 ratio?

but I was under the impression that equal parts of matter and antimatter annihilate, which would make a 50:50 system remain as such, which is why its such a mystery?

Re: James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

#70

But rotation direction depends on the observer. If i see galaxy spinning clockwise, this means someone observing galaxy from behind it sees it rotating counter clockwise. So are we just located so in the universe that we see 2/3 spinning clockwise and another counter?

The actual paper makes more sense: "the number of galaxies in that field that rotate in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way galaxy is ∼50 per cent higher than the number of galaxies that rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way."
Post reply on HN