Spiral Galaxies

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lmb5775
Asternaut
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Spiral Galaxies

Post by lmb5775 » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:40 pm

Do all galaxy spiral arms flow counter clockwise toward the center?

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RJN
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Re: Galaxies

Post by RJN » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:25 pm

Good question, but no. Here are some links that describe some recent findings in this, um, direction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_4622
http://astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=6478

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rstevenson
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Re: Galaxies

Post by rstevenson » Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:27 pm

No. :)

Imagine a galaxy that has a spiral-in-to-the-left kind of look. Now flip that galaxy over (carefully!). Now it looks like it's sprialling in to the right. And when you figure that the way galaxies appear to us is entirely random, you have to conclude that there is no set pattern to such spirals.

Rob

Oops! RJN got there first.

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bystander
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Re: Galaxies

Post by bystander » Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:11 pm

Here's a previous discussion on the topic: Spiral Galaxies.

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