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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: 0.198s | 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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analog31 ◴[31 Mar 25 13:04 UTC] No.43534594[source]▶
We're equidistant from the edge of the observable universe in all directions. One would think that puts us at the center.

(But the same is true for someone sitting on another planet).

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1. ajross ◴[31 Mar 25 13:12 UTC] No.43534676[source]▶
Some of that is a semantic thing about how one defines "distant", but this is not really required by GR. In fact the insight behind the emerging "timescape" theories is that the universe isn't flat or homogenous on large scales and that different regions have expanded at different rates. Their "edges" are equally old, but may not be not equally "distant".