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Little Green Cosmos
Hat tip LGF
Astronomers studying radiation left over from the dawn of time believe the cosmos is the shape of a football. They say it is a finite "dodecahedron" made of curved pentagons joined together. However if you went out to the edge of the "ball" you would find yourself coming back in through the opposite face.
| Happened to me once, when I was drunk... |
The research, reported in the journal Nature, is based on data from a space craft mapping the background radiation left over from the Big Bang. Nasaâs Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe showed that temperature fluctuations across the sky are smaller than would be produced by an infinite universe. New York mathematician Dr Jeffrey Weeks and colleagues worked out that a football-shaped finite universe best fitted the observations. If the results are confirmed, they would mean the universe is relatively small - about 70 billion light years across. They would also rule out exotic ideas such as "chaotic inflation" which proposes that our local universe is just one of a myriad expanding bubbles.
| Shucks. I feel so lonely... |
The scientists wrote: "Since antiquity, humans have wondered whether our universe is finite or infinite. Now, after more than two millennia of speculation, observational data might finally settle this ancient question."
Posted by: Atrus 2003-10-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=19685 |
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