Por qué todo gira — Desde los Átomos hasta las Galaxias

Have you ever stopped to think that absolutely everything in the universe is in motion? Nothing is still, everything rotates, the Moon orbits the Earth, the Earth rotates on its axis and at the same time travels around the Sun. But even the Sun moves, following a trajectory around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is not immobile either, it moves together with more than 50 other galaxies within a cluster called Local Group, which is part of an even larger structure, the Virgo Supercluster. It is rotation within rotation, an infinite cosmic ballet where each turn drives the next. Even our space missions depend on this universal principle. Before landing on the Moon, a spacecraft must first establish an orbit not only around the Earth, but also around the satellite, before starting a controlled descent. Without rotation, there is no navigation. And this does not happen only on a large scale, with planets, stars and galaxies. At the smallest levels, within the world of quantum physics, there is also rotation. Electrons rotate around the nucleus of atoms, and each subatomic particle has a property known as a spin. The spin is like the DNA of movement. It does not mean that the particles are rotating physically as a planet does, but they have an internal angular impulse shape, as fundamental as mass or electric charge. In the case of electrons, this rotation generates tiny magnetic fields. Protons, neutrons and even antiparticles have a spin, and this characteristic is inseparable from their existence. From the moment a particle is born, it already has that property that depends on its density and energy. When matter accumulated under the force of gravity to form stars, planets and galaxies, all these bodies inherited their angular moment. This impulse determines whether an object rotates on its axis or orbits around another, like the Earth around the Sun. This natural tendency to rotate also explains why celestial bodies adopt spherical shapes. Gravity attracts matter to the center, and the greater the mass, the stronger its attraction. Meanwhile, the angular moment distributes that movement in a balanced way. You may have wondered why planets do not collide with each other. The answer is simple. If everything were at rest, gravity would make them collapse in a single point. But nothing in the universe is still. Everything moves, and precisely because of these speed differences, a perfect cosmic choreography is produced, guided by a powerful principle. Inertia. Inertia is the tendency of a body to remain in its state of movement or rest, unless an external force modifies it. In the vacuum of space, where there is no friction, movement can persist for millions of years. This is what we know as the conservation law of the angular moment. Objects continue to rotate and orbit, either in circular or elliptical trajectories. Even collisions do not destroy that impulse, they only redistribute it. This is where the concept of escape velocity arises. It is the minimum speed necessary for an object to surpass the gravitational attraction of another body. In the case of Earth, that speed is 11.2 km per second, more than 40,000 km per hour. However, even at that speed we are still bound to the Sun, orbiting in its trajectory. To escape completely from the solar system, it would be necessary to reach about 43.5 km per second. Therefore, sending a probe beyond our system is not an easy task. The Voyager missions, for example, used a brilliant strategy called gravitational assistance. Instead of relying solely on fuel, scientists took advantage of the enormous gravity of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn to launch probes as if they were cosmic waves, gaining speed without spending more energy. This technique works because energy is conserved. And taking advantage of the moment of the giant planets, a spacecraft can reach interstellar speeds. But escaping from the solar system is just the beginning. If we wanted to escape from our galaxy, the escape velocity of the Milky Way would be colossal. Around 537 km per second, almost 2 million km per hour. And yet, the biggest question remains open. Why does everything in the universe rotate from the beginning? Did the universe itself begin with a rotation? Some studies show a slight asymmetry, a small excess of just 1 or 2% of galaxies that rotate in the same direction. If this observation is confirmed, it could indicate that the universe was born with an initial impulse. Some theorists even suggest that this primordial rotation could be related to what we call dark energy, the mysterious force that drives the expansion of the cosmos. Perhaps dark energy is not an unknown substance, but the effect of a gigantic centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the universe itself. So far, there is no definitive evidence. The measurements of the background cosmic radiation, the oldest light of the Big Bang, do not show clear signs of universal rotation. But that does not rule it out completely. Perhaps the universe rotates so slowly that it escapes our detection, just as ancient civilizations believed that the Earth was immobile. Some hypotheses estimate that the universe could take more than 6 billion years to complete a single rotation. At that time scale, it is not surprising that it seems static. And if we take our imagination one step further, what if our universe also rotates within an even larger structure, like planets rotate around stars and stars around galaxies? What if the multiverse is a huge system of universes, each rotating, colliding and giving rise to cosmic explosions like the Big Bang? The truth is that we still do not have a final answer. But we do know one thing. The universe is never still. It is alive, vibrant, in constant motion. Everything rotates, everything flows. And we, human beings, are just small pieces of this immense cosmic machinery. If this trip made you look at the sky with new eyes, don't leave it here. Subscribe now to Horizonte Estelar and join our community of Cosmos Explorers. Every week we will discover together new mysteries of space and revelations that will change your way of understanding the universe. Like the video so that more people can marvel at this cosmic trip. Tell us in the comments why you think everything rotates. And share this video with someone who loves astronomy, because every time we look at the stars we are witnesses of the eternal dance of the universe. And don't stop here. Click on the video on the screen and keep exploring the next cosmic mystery.