Is our galaxy orbiting around an object in the universe?

Yes, the Milky Way does orbit something, and it also spins as it does so. Everything in the universe seems to be spinning while in orbit around something. The Moon spins as it goes around Earth; the Earth spins as it goes around the Sun; the Sun spins as it goes around the galactic centre 26,000 light years away.

In fact, the entire Milky Way spins as it moves in orbit around our neighbour, Andromeda, which in turn is also spinning. Around the Milky Way are two dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and they will both eventually collide with us. A billion years later, the Andromeda galaxy will collide with us to form a giant future galaxy.

Interestingly, the orbital motions do not stop there, either. Our group of galaxies, called the Local Group, is falling towards the Virgo Cluster of galaxies some 40 million light years away. Us and Virgo are also moving towards the Great Attractor. In the universe, nothing ever stands still.

Our Milky Way galaxy orbits around the larger

Andromeda

Things collapse under gravity, and like an ice skater on a rink pulling their arms in to spin faster, they may spin slowly to start with, but speed up as the collapsing objects become more compact.

Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Australian

Research Council Laureate Fellow professor of physics and director of the Sydney Institute for Astronomy