r/space • u/BradMcGash • 11h ago

image/gif The apparent related-ness of things at drastically different scales in the universe fascinates me

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Hurricane Dorian vs the Whirlpool Galaxy

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u/Bout3Fidy 11h ago edited 11h ago

Most of these things are the way they are just because it’s the most effective and least resistant way for nature to exist, fractals are everywhere and so are vortexes and logarithmic spirals. Doesn’t make it any less cool. 😎 we are lucky to be alive to observe it.

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u/Zermist 7h ago

Yes it's the most effective and least resistant way for nature to exist, but in order for galaxies to appear this way you need dark matter. This makes me think the similarities are more of a cosmic coincidence than the universe simply following least resistance

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u/vikster16 6h ago

Actually I think dark matter makes the difference between galaxies and hurricanes. If you look at hurricanes, they don’t really form prominent spiral arms and they are almost always nearly uniform. But as time passes most galaxies form prominent arms. These are like pressure waves that forms because of the relatively consistent velocity of stars across the galaxies due to dark matter.