Spiral Arm Galaxies

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bdewoody

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Do all observed spiral arm galaxies rotate counter-clockwise? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>
 
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doubletruncation

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Any galaxy can be seen to rotate counter-clockwise or clockwise depending on which side of the galaxy your looking at. Since galaxy orientations are distributed randomly, there are plenty of spiral galaxies that rotate clockwise and plenty that rotate counter-clockwise from our perspective. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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harmonicaman

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Great Question!<br /><br />This has actually been investigated by astronomers who were looking for signs of symmetry in the universe and they discovered that the orientation of galactic rotation occurs entirely at random; although perturbations within galactic clusters seems to play a role in how a galaxy may orient itself in relation to its neighbors!<br /><br /><i>"Galaxies rotate every which way. There are some fairly weak correlations seen in the orientations of the axes of galaxies relative to their surroundings."</i><br /><br /> - <b>Dr. Harry Ferguson</b> Astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute
 
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paintwoik

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I would like to know if it has been determined what is top verses bottom, or north verses south, if there is actually such a thing. So do we really know if there is a preference if we don't have a reference?
 
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vogon13

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If even a slight preponderence of galaxies were to exhibit net alignment of spin it would indicate the overall universe has a net angular momentum.<br /><br />Pretty profound thought that we could potentially detect such a characteristic of reality.<br /><br /><br />I predict a net turn to the left.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />{that last bit was a jokey}<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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