this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Puzzling observation about Milky Way, deep space galaxies' rotations. (www.techexplorist.com)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

  • Possible Explanations:

    Shamir proposes two main explanations for this unexpected pattern: 

    • A Rotating Universe: The universe itself might have been born rotating, which could explain the observed asymmetry. 
    • Observational Bias: Earth's motion around the Milky Way's center might create a Doppler shift effect, making galaxies rotating in the opposite direction appear brighter and more detectable, potentially creating an observational bias. 
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Thanks! The article never mentions the direction of the MW's spin, so the bias section reads pretty roughly. If the reader knows that going in then it makes perfect sense:

  • MW spins counter-clockwise

  • Most observed galaxies spin clockwise

  • Doppler effect would make galaxies spinning the opposite direction of Milky Way appear slightly brighter to us,

which suggests observation bias as a possible explanation. I only got 2/3.

A strategic "also" in "This could explain why such galaxies seem more common in telescope observations." would have helped as well.