Science
Why is everything in space always moving?
Nothing in our universe stands still: Earth orbits the sun, the sun circles the galaxy, and even galaxies are constantly on the move. So why is everything in space in motion?
It all comes down to how the universe and the objects within it were made, Edward Gomez, an astrophysicist and the education director at Las Cumbres Observatory, told Live Science. Scientists think the universe began with the Big Bang, a superfast expansion from an infinitely dense single point that eventually led to the formation of everything we see today.
"From the very beginning of the universe, it started expanding outwards because the force of the Big Bang caused everything to move apart," Gomez said.
"It's sort of the imprint of the beginning," said Carol Christian, an astrophysicist and outreach project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "The beginning was movement, and so movement has been built into the universe from the very beginning."
Related: Does the universe rotate?
So one reason everything in space is in motion is because the universe is expanding. But that expansion has effects only on very large scales. "We only see it really happening on things that are very far apart or far away, because it's not necessarily that these objects are moving through space," Gomez said. "It's that the space in between objects is getting bigger."
On smaller scales, though, rotation is the movement that rules objects in space. "This spinning thing is kind of endemic in the universe, too," Christian told Live Science. "There isn't anything that doesn't rotate."
-
Science21h ago
Giant underwater avalanche decimated Atlantic seafloor 60,000 years ago, 1st-of-its-kind map reveals
-
Science21h ago
Al Naslaa rock: Saudi Arabia's enigmatic sandstone block that's split perfectly down the middle
-
Science1d ago
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket grounded for 2nd time in 2 months following explosive landing failure
-
Science1d ago
James Webb telescope spots 6 enormous 'rogue planets' tumbling through space without a star
-
Science1d ago
Ancient viral genomes plucked from glaciers reveal how pathogens have adapted to Earth's shifting climate
-
Science2d ago
Large patch of the Atlantic Ocean near the equator has been cooling at record speeds — and scientists can't figure out why
-
Science2d ago
Gravitational waves hint at a 'supercool' secret about the Big Bang
-
Science3d ago
200 meteorites on Earth traced to 5 craters on Mars