Re: Is the Universe rotating?

Tim,

I don't know of any theory that would explain the current observations of an accelerating universe (see here for more info) as being due to rotation. Without a well-developed theory that predicts this, and also other observations, it's not really possible to say whether or not it's correct.

One reason a lot of cosmologists wouldn't like such a theory is that it violates one of the major assumption behind current cosmology. This assumption is that the universe is isotropic, that is, it looks the same in every direction. If the universe were rotating, it would have a "preferred" direction (the direction of the axis of spin) and would not be isotropic. Of course, the isotropy assumption could be wrong, but it seems to have help up well so far in other contexts, so cosmologists are reluctant to just throw it away.

Pauline