A new study has found that two-thirds of distant galaxies rotate clockwise, a surprising imbalance compared to the random distribution that would have been expected.
A study using data from the Webb Telescope found that most galaxies in the deep field rotate in the same direction, suggesting possible flaws in current cosmological models or observational bias related to the motion of the Milky Way.
Just over three years after its launch, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has provided groundbreaking insights into the distant universe. Now, new research reveals one of the simplest and most puzzling observations yet.
Using data from Webb's JADES instrument, Lior Shamir, an associate professor at Kansas State University, discovered a surprising pattern: Most of the galaxies observed appear to rotate in the same direction. Of the 263 galaxies in the JADES field with a clearly identifiable rotation, about two-thirds rotate clockwise, and only one-third counterclockwise.
The research raises interesting questions about the large-scale structure and symmetry of the universe.
"The analysis of the galaxies is done by quantitatively analyzing their shapes, but the difference is so obvious, anyone looking at the image can see it," Shamir said. "It doesn't take special skill or knowledge to see that the numbers are different. With the power of Webb, anyone can see it."
In a random universe, the number of galaxies rotating in one direction should be roughly the same as the number rotating in the other. The fact that Webb shows that most galaxies rotate in the same direction is therefore unexpected.
"It's still not clear what causes this to happen, but there are two main possible explanations," Shamir said. "One explanation is that the universe was created rotating. This explanation fits theories like the cosmological black hole, which assumes that the entire universe is the inside of a black hole. But if the universe was created rotating, it means that existing theories about the cosmos are incomplete."
The Earth also rotates around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and because of the Doppler shift effect, researchers expect that light coming from galaxies that rotate in the opposite direction to the Earth's rotation will generally be brighter because of the effect.
This could be another explanation for the overrepresentation of such galaxies in telescope observations, Shamir said. Astronomers may need to rethink the influence of the Milky Way's rotational speed — traditionally thought to be too slow and negligible compared to other galaxies — in their measurements.
"If this is indeed the case, we will need to recalibrate our distance measurements in the deep universe," he said. "Recalibrating distance measurements could also explain some other unresolved questions in cosmology, such as the difference in the expansion rate of the universe and the large galaxies that, according to current distance measurements, are expected to be older than the universe itself."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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The description of the Big Bang is a description of a phenomenon from limited tools, which at the moment, even we, with limited tools, assume is the correct assumption.
Relative to whom is the universe expanding?
What was before the Big Bang?
Why was it created?
That's right, questions that are about the field of philosophy.
But like every paradigm and scientific progress, a day will come when the unknown, that "philosophical" part, will become real science.
How? By changing our limited tools, not the external ones, but rather by changing our essence.
Why? Because you and I and all this creation that we see, smell, experience with our 5 senses, did not exist before the big bang.
All the differences, the colors, black and white, big and small, beautiful and ugly, etc. – did not exist, and even scientists agree with this.
None of this existed before the Big Bang, including the laws of physics.
I don't want to get into or get close to any one solution or the other.
I'll just try to draw attention to one thing: when I go out and see this big world, plants, ants, dogs, cats, elephants, humans, differences between humans.
What do I actually see? What is the difference between each one of us?
In the form of the fulfillment that everyone desires throughout their lives. Think about it. One is filled with this kind of fulfillment and the other with another. It could be a primitive fulfillment, it could be a more advanced fulfillment. But still, we are all consumers of the fulfillment that we desire, and this fulfillment is what creates for us the gap between what is and what is desired, the movement, the feeling of time.
And what was there before the bang? The desire to be fulfilled did not exist.
And what do we have after the big bang? What was discovered? Only the will of each and every one of us.
Why? For what reason? How does all this relate to our lives?
We will discover this step by step in our journey towards that truth that we so long to discover.
I didn't understand - after all, not everyone is on the same plane - so it's possible they flipped over - and that's why they seem to be turning to the other side.
There is really no way to know whether a galaxy is upside down or upright – and when rotated
When it stands with the top side up relative to us – then it turns in one direction, but if it turns over then it turns in the other direction.
Another possibility is that 263 is too small a sample size.