Shamir, L. Asymmetry in Galaxy Spin Directions—Analysis of Data from DES and Comparison to Four Other Sky Surveys. Universe 2022, 8, 397, doi:10.3390/universe8080397.
Shamir, L. Asymmetry in Galaxy Spin Directions—Analysis of Data from DES and Comparison to Four Other Sky Surveys. Universe 2022, 8, 397, doi:10.3390/universe8080397.
Shamir, L. Asymmetry in Galaxy Spin Directions—Analysis of Data from DES and Comparison to Four Other Sky Surveys. Universe 2022, 8, 397, doi:10.3390/universe8080397.
Shamir, L. Asymmetry in Galaxy Spin Directions—Analysis of Data from DES and Comparison to Four Other Sky Surveys. Universe 2022, 8, 397, doi:10.3390/universe8080397.
Abstract
The paper shows an analysis of the large-scale distribution of galaxy spin directions of 739,286 galaxies imaged by DES. The distribution of the spin directions of the galaxies exhibits a large-scale dipole axis. Comparison of the location of the dipole axis to a similar analysis with data from SDSS, Pan-STARRS, and DESI Legacy Survey shows that all sky surveys exhibit dipole axes well within 1$\sigma$ error from each other. While non-random distribution is unexpected, the findings are consistent across all sky surveys, regardless of the telescope or whether the data were annotated manually or automatically. Possible errors that can lead to the observation are discussed. The paper also discusses previous studies showing opposite conclusions, and analyzes the decisions that led to these results. Although the observation is provocative, and further research will be required, the existing evidence justifies to consider the contention that galaxy spin directions as observed from Earth are not necessarily randomly distributed. Possible explanations can be related to mature cosmological theories, but also to the internal structure of galaxies.
Keywords
Galaxies; Large-scale structure of Universe; Cosmic anisotropy
Subject
Physical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.