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352 points instagraham | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.304s | source
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like_any_other ◴[] No.43533575[source]
> Due to an effect called the Doppler shift, astronomers expect galaxies rotating opposite to the Milky Way’s motion to appear brighter

How does this work? The page it links to doesn't explain why rotation would matter.

Edit: To clarify - one side of the galaxy would be moving towards us, and one away from us, no matter which direction it spins in, so this should not affect the average brightness of the entire galaxy.

The original paper (https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/538/1/76/8019798?logi...) links to a few papers discussing this, among them https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/15/6/1190 It doesn't answer my question (or if it does, I didn't understand it), but it gives a magnitude for the expected effect on brightness - 0.6%. I do not think that would explain the 1:2 ratio of observed spin directions.

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1. ordu ◴[] No.43535692[source]
Well, I don't know physics, but from I heard of it, there are two kinds of phenomena that are sensitive to a rotation. One is quantum particles, they have fixed spin, but won't delve into that topic, because I suspect that their "spin" is like the charm of the charm quark, probably physicists just liked the sound of a word and used it. But there is one other thing I heard about: electromagnetism. If you run charged particles in circles, they create magnetic field that is directed perpendicularly to the circles, and the magnetic field feels different depending on the side of the circles being observed.

I see no way it influences the light emitted, but maybe I heard just too little of physics? BTW, does the direction of magnetic field of galaxies correlate with the direction of their rotation?

edit: Ah, maybe magnetic field can polarize the light? And when you have two magentic fields they polarize in one direction or in two different, and maybe it influences observed brightness of the light? Or maybe it is just an uninformed guess?