A faint cosmic spin – one rotation per 500 billion years – could resolve the stubborn Hubble tension by tweaking standard expansion models.
Researchers led by István Szapudi showed this tiny rotation harmonizes supernova and cosmic microwave background measurements without defying known physics. The next challenge is building detailed simulations and hunting for subtle signatures of this universal twirl.
Slow Cosmic Rotation Proposition
A new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that the universe might be rotating – very slowly. The research, led by István Szapudi of the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy, could offer a new way to resolve one of cosmology’s most persistent mysteries.
“To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, who famously said “Panta Rhei” – everything moves, we thought that perhaps Panta Kykloutai – everything turns,” said Szapudi.
According to current models, the universe is expanding evenly in all directions, without any sign of rotation. This view aligns well with most astronomical observations. However, it doesn’t explain the so-called “Hubble tension” – a long-standing conflict between two key measurements of the universe’s expansion rate.
Hubble Tension and Measurement Techniques
One method measures light from distant supernovae to track how galaxies have spread apart over the past few billion years. The other relies on the cosmic microwave background—the leftover radiation from the Big Bang – which reflects conditions in the early universe, around 13 billion years ago. Strangely, these methods produce slightly different values for how fast the universe is expanding.
To explore the issue, Szapudi and his team created a mathematical model of the universe. It followed standard physics at first—until they added a small amount of rotation. Surprisingly, this tiny adjustment had a big impact: the model smoothed out the conflicting measurements without clashing with existing observations.
Rotation Models Resolve Expansion Paradox
“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. Or, Panta Kykloutai!” noted Szapudi.
Their model suggests the universe could rotate once every 500 billion years—too slow to detect easily, but enough to affect how space expands over time.
The idea doesn’t break any known laws of physics. And it might explain why measurements of the universe’s growth don’t quite agree.
Future Directions in Cosmic Spin Research
The next step is turning the theory into a full computer model—and finding ways to spot signs of this slow cosmic spin.
Reference: “Can rotation solve the Hubble Puzzle?” by Balázs Endre Szigeti, István Szapudi, Imre Ferenc Barna and Gergely Gábor Barnaföldi, 21 March 2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf446
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26 Comments
There’s no apparent plane of expansion and axis of compression for the spin. That means it can only be an appeal to one or more extra dimensions, which I suppose meets critical spookiness requirements.
According to the topological vortex theory (TVT), topological spins create everything, and shape the world.
There is no such science theory in peer reviewed publications.
The entire universe rotating implies a center and a rotation axis, which have not been found. And given a rotation rate of once every 500 billion years and a universe with a diameter of 93 billion light years, the rotation speed at maximum diameter would presently be about 0.6 c, which is hardly “tiny” and should be easily detected. It further suggests that the rotational speed exceeded c by a huge margin early on.
I’m with you, I don’t believe the universe has a center.
Yes, the article should have specified the axis of rotation.
How ’bout the singularity at the ‘beginning’ of the universe? It’s not a ‘where’; it’s a ‘when’.
“Surprise: the Big Bang isn’t the beginning of the universe anymore
We used to think the Big Bang meant the universe began from a singularity. Nearly 100 years later, we’re not so sure.”
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/big-bang-beginning-universe/
I didn’t call it ‘the Big Bang’; because the ‘bang’ never happened.
…also, weren’t you a Standard Model devotee? When did you finally wake up? Was it the DESI findings?
Yes, “TL” used to be very PC in defending the BBT, and was sometimes condescending in criticizing those who questioned that model.
My intuition also.
If you read the paper you’ll see that they suggest the universe spun up, so no early problems.
But else, yes, you are correct, it is a large and finetuned rotational speed to not break anything.
I’ve had this theory for about 20 years now, that black holes are what make time travel forwards.
Do with it what you will.
Do you mind if I nominate you for a long-overdue Nobel?
A vernacular theory I assume, there is no such science theory in peer reviewed publications.
I dunno about you, but I’ll just dismiss it. The science is more exciting!
Why not ask the aliens.. ?
Why not ask the aliens?
This also suggests that when adding angular velocity to the most distsnt stars, they are exceeding c.
The alternate suggestions implies that there is a localized measurement for c that vaires somehow across billions of light years. Or gravity is not a consistent measurement.
Either way, this means the our gross understanding of distant objects is faulty.
Universe expands by adding space between distant galaxies and us. In that case, the apparent speed of the distant galaxy can exceed c without breaking any laws of physics.
The rotation can also be due to added space.
No, the rotation is at right angles to the expansion effect. They do have a problem with almost getting time travel physics, which they avoid “just because”.
Tiny like a neutrino , if the universe is 13.8 billion years old and the rotation is 500 billion years for a full rotation then the universe has only rotated 0.1 percent of a full rotation . we just can’t keep saying that we know so much when everyday a new phenomenon appears . It is a great proposal to solve the tension .
Huh I aways thought it was. The earth spins, the Solar system spins, the galaxy spins. Why not the universe. It would not be spinning a disk type spin. No laws of physics broken if its spinning like a fluid. Yes for there to be spin there would have to be a center but on a cosmic scale, we would not see it, and since we are moving away we will never see it.
We will notice a huge rotation in the cosmic background radiation. They propose a rotation rate that we can’t resolve, but on the other hand there is also no good reason for it. And it is worse than that in its details – it is a hard sell.
The cosmic background radiation tell us the universe is non-rotating as best we can measure.
This hypothesis suggests an external [!] force that has spun up the universe to a rotation rate of once every 500 billion years to explain the Hubble tension. But while it is interesting it doesn’t tell us why it would spin up and then stop before we get time travel effects as opposed to having a fixed, possibly random, rotation.
It is a complicated and finetuned physics they propose in order to explain why some – but not all – Hubble rate observations get high values. It is a hard sell.
Thank you for the comments and remarks on our study. I am one of the authors. Note, that the term which describes rotation has a 1/t temporal dependence. Check the former paper of Szigeti et al. in Universe 2023, 9 431 for more technical details.
From what I can tell, his experiment did not take into account the redshift of galaxies by binning the data. It assumes that all galaxies in the field are the same age when in reality, at high z, there is more congruence than at low z. If that is the case, this paper would be easily falsified. Would love to hear from someone who ran this study.