Why doesnt the universe rotate?

Question

When everything contained in the universe rotates; planets, stars, galaxies all rotate; then why doesnt the universe?

Thanks a lot.

N T

Answer 1

Three reasons.

1 as far as we can see, the universe is isotropic, so it can't have a special direction like an axis of rotation.

2 It doesn't have a centre, so where would the axis of rotation be located?

3 At even a very slow rate of rotation, distant galaxies would be moving faster than light, which is probably impossible.

Answer 2

Who says it doesn't? Scientists don't have technology enough to tell us much about outer space, and even if they do tell us that they know the whole galaxy top to bottom, they'll probably say in ten to a thousand years, "Oops, we were wrong, the Sun is actually the size of a peanut."

BTW there's only one star in the universe: the Sun. The universe is IN a galaxy, not vice versa

Answer 3

we don't know that it doesn't.... and how would we really know if it did? it's not like we can see other universes or points in space to compare it too.... we could be spinning thousands of miles an hour and not even notice it.

" The universe is IN a galaxy, not vice versa"

um.. no.. the universe is merely a collection of galaxies.... how can a COLLECTION OF GALAXIES be in A GALAXY

Answer 4

how do you know it does'nt ?

Answer 5

Well, first of all, not all things rotate in the same direction.

Second, "just because one thing is rotating" is not a

reason for something else to rotate.

You need to understand what the total (as far as we can see) universe looks like before you ask questions like this. There are immense distances involved when you discuss the "universe". There are also untold billions of stars and galaxies involved, and it is not possible to throw around words like "all" and "most" when discussing the Universe.

Please go and visit this site:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com

If you walk through the illustrations one at a time you will begin to see that the universe is a great deal bigger than

maybe what you thought.

Finally, since we are within the universe, how on earth would you ever detect that the universe itself was spining?

Answer 6

The universe is a vacuum which is less than nothingness and it goes on forever in any direction.

Everything in it is rotating and expanding ever outward, forever creating new worlds as it goes.

Answer 7

We have nothing else to compare it to outside of the Universe. We just know what it should do.

Answer 8

"Why" questions like this are very difficult to answer in a scientific way.  We can talk about what and how, but "why" gets into religion and philosophy.

We can be sure, however, that *if* the universe rotates, it does so *very* slowly.  Very high precision experiments with what is called the "Lense-Thirring effect" have show that the rotation must be less than 1 rotation in 10^13 years, or 1000 times longer than the age of the universe.

It doesn't seem to be impossible that the universe rotates, just very unlikely.

Answer 9

of course, without anything to look at to make a relative observation, we can't know if it is or isn't..... but... don't you think that after a huge event like the BigBang and all that instant action, that some sort of movement would have started?... I do... seems reasonable to me that the Universe is turning, too....

Answer 10

to be honest... at the moment scientists dont no whether or not the universe itself is rotating or not...

you have to go back to the string theory...

after 2membranes collide'd.... the big bang occur'd. (in theory of course).  its not yet define'd whether the mass create'd through this energy (E=mc^2) is rotate'n itself  along w/ membranes... what is known is dat the universe is expanding... and membranes are in movement.