Large-scale asymmetry between spin patterns of spiral galaxies

Lior Shamir

Published 2017-03-22Version 1

Spin patterns of spiral galaxies can be broadly separated into galaxies with clockwise patterns and galaxies with counterclockwise spin patterns. While the differences between these patterns are visually noticeable, they are a matter of the perspective of the observer, and therefore in a sufficiently large universe no other differences are expected between galaxies with clockwise and counterclockwise spin patterns. Here large datasets of spiral galaxies separated by their spin patterns are used to show that spiral galaxies with clockwise spin patterns are photometrically different from spiral galaxies with counterclockwise patterns. That asymmetry changes based on the direction of observation, such that the observed asymmetry in one hemisphere is aligned with the inverse observed asymmetry in the opposite hemisphere. The results are consistent across different sky surveys (SDSS and PanSTARRS) and analysis methods, showing that the origin of the asymmetry is not a certain telescope system or a flaw in the analysis algorithms.