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One of astronomy's biggest puzzles may have been solved by a new theory that suggests the universe may rotate at an extremely slow rate.
Current models suggest the universe is expanding evenly in all directions—much like a balloon being inflated—but it was not believed that the universe itself was rotating.
There is a problem in our understanding of universal expansion; different methods for measuring the rate of expansion yield different results.
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Studies of the Cosmic Radiation Background (CMB)—the echo of the first light from the Big Bang—gives one result, while measurements of how fast relatively close objects like supernovae are moving away from us suggests a faster rate.
The difference between the two—a major puzzle for cosmologists—has become known as the "Hubble tension". A rotating universe, however, could resolve this discrepancy, a study has proposed.
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In the study, the team that includes University of Hawai'i Manoa Institute for Astronomy researcher István Szapudi mathematically modelled the universe, first by following standard rules, then adding a tiny amount of rotation—which made a huge difference.
The rotating model, which does not break any known law of physics, suggests the universe could spin around once every 500 billion years. This would be far too slowly to detect easily, but enough to affect how space expands over time.
Szapudi said in a statement: "Much to our surprise, we found that our model with rotation resolves the paradox without contradicting current astronomical measurements.
"Even better, it is compatible with other models that assume rotation. Therefore, perhaps, everything really does turn."
The researcher told Newsweek: "The rotation speed needed is the maximum speed the universe could rotate such that a point just within the horizon would have a speed less than the speed of light. Interestingly, we can imagine the universe as an inside-out black hole, and most black holes also rotate close to the maximum allowed rotation."
According to the researchers, their spinning model predicts a Hubble constant consistent with local measurements.
With their initial study complete, the team are now planning to expand their model—and investigate methods we might be able to use to tell if the universe is indeed slowly spinning.
They plan to do this, Szapudi told Newsweek, by running "slowly rotating cosmological simulations to find out other measurable consequences of rotation."
"One could imagine correlations of galaxy spins, for instance, but we need simulations to find and establish any quantifiable effects. The CMB has tightly constrained many related models, but not yet those we considered. We will work on methods that could constrain our model from the CMB.
"Finally, we are working on measurement methods that could constrain rotation from high-precision observations of solar system objects, such as those performed by the Gaia satellite."
He quoted the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus of Ephesus, who "famously said 'Panta Rhei', ie, everything moves.
"Looking around the universe, we can observe that everything also rotates: the Earth, Moon, Sun, Solar System, our Galaxy, galaxies in clusters, etc. So we coined the phrase 'Panta Kykloutai'—everything rotates—and applied it to the whole universe.
"The results were surprisingly consistent with everything we know so far."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about space? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Update, 04/17/2025, 3:30am: This article has been updated to include comment from István Szapudi.
Reference
Szigeti, B. E., Szapudi, I., Barna, I. F., & Barnaföldi, G. G. (2025). Can rotation solve the Hubble Puzzle? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 538(4), 3038–3041. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf446
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