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James Webb Space Telescope reveals that most galaxies rotate clockwise

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
352 points instagraham | 1 comments | 31 Mar 25 10:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.229s | source
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keyle ◴[31 Mar 25 10:59 UTC] No.43533500[source]▶
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?

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eagerpace ◴[31 Mar 25 12:49 UTC] No.43534401[source]▶
https://mapoftheuniverse.net

While we don't believe we're the center of the universe, I believe we're limited by instrumentation to determine its size. Best guess now is 100B LY in diameter.

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1. A_D_E_P_T ◴[31 Mar 25 13:02 UTC] No.43534570[source]▶
100B LY is a little bit larger than the observable universe.

But the observable universe is a fraction of the whole thing. The "best guess" right now is that the total universe is flat and has no end.

If it's bounded, 100B LY is orders of magnitude below the most conservative lower-bound estimates, which I believe start at around 300-500x that size. (With huge error bars on all sides.)