Is there cyclic motion of galaxies?

[lazypast]

Im aware that the planets in our solar system all orbit the sun on the same plane. and if we look at the milky way all the stars are aligned on the same plane. if we go out one further (ie to look at galaxies) , I am wondering if the motion of galaxies and how they are aligned has any structure.

thanks

 

[turbo]

Im aware that the planets in our solar system all orbit the sun on the same plane. and if we look at the milky way all the stars are aligned on the same plane. if we go out one further (ie to look at galaxies) , I am wondering if the motion of galaxies and how they are aligned has any structure.

thanks

I'll try to dig up the link, but in a recent thread started by Astronuc regarding large-scale structures in the Universe, there was a link to a study showing that galaxy rotation axes were preferentially aligned with the filaments and walls in which they are embedded.

 

[turbo]

I can't seem to dig up the thread. Perhaps Astro didn't start it... I'll keep trying.

 

[HollieDee]

I know that some galaxies do orbit each other! But that's as far as our cosmos module has taught us :(

 

[turbo]

I haven't found a free electronic preprint yet, but here is the afore-mentioned paper regarding preferential galaxy orientation with respect to the filaments and walls in which they are embedded.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/tk02015561k5573h/

 

[lazypast]

Thanks for the replies, I am not sure of what these filaments and wall are that turbo mentions?
Thanks

 

[turbo]

Our universe has structures on very large scales. There are groups of galaxies arranged in sheets and filaments, and there are some very large voids that are nearly empty of galaxies. From the abstract, it seems that the authors studied sheets of galaxies bordering voids and discovered that the spin axes of the galaxies in the sheets were preferentially aligned WRT to the orientation of the sheets.

 

[Newai]

Maybe this is accurate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFlzyxSQhTc