ひげ
@beardalaxy For now, it might spin, but at a speed that is too slow to measure accurately... with the current tech. But yes, we have some clues that could point at the universe as a whole spinning.
@beardalaxy I know my answer is very wishy-washy, and that's because we don't actually have solid evidence. Just a few computer models that would fit with everything else we know about the universe, which would help explain a few odd observations of very distant galaxies apparently having a preference of rotational direction (which normally you'd expect a 50/50 distribution of clockwise and anti-clockwise spin).
@alyx @beardalaxy
I am not a scientist, but Isn't spin an inevitable result of free movement? Also, when the question is asked as a binary, then literally any spin will ho to the answer being "yes", and No is therefore pretty much impossible.
@LukeAlmighty @beardalaxy
Thing is, we just don't know how the universe as a whole would behave. We see galaxies spinning all the time. We even see clusters of galaxies spinning as a single object. But we also see all of these spinning both clockwise and anti-clockwise. We see local pockets of the universe spinning, but as far as we know, these local spins might cancel each other out, and at the universe level, it could be no spin. Until we measure it somehow, we can't draw a conclusion.
Imagine seeing a small whirlpool in a body of water, and trying to conclude from it that the Earth is spinning. It would be faulty reasoning. The whirlpool's spin isn't prof that Earth itself is spinning. It could be just a localized movement that gets canceled out at a greater scale.
@alyx @beardalaxy
2nd question is, is it even definitionally possible? Especially considering that we don't know if the space is finite.
