An analysis of more than 200,000 spiral galaxies has revealed unexpected links between spin directions of galaxies, and the structure formed by these links might suggest that the early universe could have been spinning, according to a Kansas State University study.
Lior Shamir, a K-State computational astronomer and computer scientist, presented the findings at the 236th American Astronomical Society meeting in June 2020. The findings are significant because the observations conflict with some previous assumptions about the large-scale structure of the universe.
Since the time of Edwin Hubble, astronomers have believed that the universe is inflating with no particular direction and that the galaxies in it are distributed with no particular cosmological structure. But Shamir's recent observations of geometrical patterns of more than 200,000 spiral galaxies suggest that the universe could have a defined structure and that the early universe could have been spinning. Patterns in the distribution of these galaxies suggest that spiral galaxies in different parts of the universe, separated by both space and time, are related through the directions toward which they spin, according to the study.
"Data science in astronomy has not just made astronomy research more cost-effective, but it also allows us to observe the universe in a completely different way," said Shamir, also a K-State associate professor of computer science. "The geometrical pattern exhibited by the distribution of the spiral galaxies is clear, but can only be observed when analyzing a very large number of astronomical objects." ...
Re: KSU: Asymmetry in Spin Directions of Galaxies Revealed
I find this remarkable. If the Universe is rotating, is it rotating in relation to something else? Perhaps rotating inside something else? Does that mean that the Universe is "immersed in" but "cut off from" something else, which is larger than, and outside, our Universe?
Or could it be that the observable Universe is rotating in relation to all of the parts of the Universe that we can never see, so that the Universe is still all there is?
Or could it be that different parts of the observable Universe are rotating in relation to themselves?
Ann
Re: KSU: Asymmetry in Spin Directions of Galaxies Revealed
An analysis of more than 200,000 spiral galaxies has revealed unexpected links between spin directions of galaxies, and the structure formed by these links might suggest that the early universe could have been spinning, according to a Kansas State University study." ...
I find this remarkable. If the Universe is rotating, is it rotating in relation to something else? Perhaps rotating inside something else? Does that mean that the Universe is "immersed in" but "cut off from" something else, which is larger than, and outside, our Universe?
The observable universe is probably a tiny tiny part of the whole Universe.
There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.
If accurate this involves the sum of the spins of our just closest 200,000 spiral galaxies.
No reason to Mach a big deal of this thing at this point.
Re: KSU: Asymmetry in Spin Directions of Galaxies Revealed
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2020 9:42 pm
by lshamir
Spinning is just one interpretation of the observation. But it seems that the universe (z<0.3) does have a certain defined structure, and the structure exhibits multipole alignment. If the early universe was spinning, it is not a simple system (like the Earth, for instance), but perhaps it could be related to non-uniform expansion. Surely more work on this in the future.
