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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: 0.438s | source
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worldsayshi ◴[31 Mar 25 11:02 UTC] No.43533522[source]▶
Clockwise relative to what? Does the universe have an "upwards" direction?

Or is it just relative to all the other galaxies?

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andrewaylett ◴[31 Mar 25 11:11 UTC] No.43533588[source]▶
Clockwise relative to our viewpoint, while we would expect that we'd see an equal number rotating in either direction no matter which way we looked or where we were looking from.
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xeornet ◴[31 Mar 25 19:59 UTC] No.43539189[source]▶
Sorry if it's a dumb question, by why would we expect an equal number? Doesn't that assume that we consider ourselves at the centre of our observable universe?
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1. schoen ◴[31 Mar 25 20:00 UTC] No.43539199[source]▶
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principle

It seems to have caught on, but one could still doubt its applicability to all phenomena at all scales.