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APOD 2004 Feb 21

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:17 am
by makc
I came there from today's APOD link. Just thought could it be that it's not NGC 4622 rotates clockwise, but it's Milky Way rotates faster, and hence an illusion :?:

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:04 pm
by BMAONE23
Isn't it a matter of perspective though. if you look at a clock face on, the hands rotate clockwise (hence the phrase) but if you look at the clock from the reverse side the hands appear to rotate counter-clockwise. All galaxies may in fact rotate in only one direction but due to our perspective, they appear to rotate differently. It is wierd though that the arms rotate opposite to the direction of their spiral.

weird

Posted: Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:44 pm
by lllbr0kenlll
i didnt know that...
really,.. they rotate like a saw blade....like digging into space?

Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:15 pm
by Empeda
Not usually - this is an unusual example - probably as a result of a galactic collision.