The universe is not round, say scientists - it is shaped like a trumpet

[papau]

1996 Nasa data that found that the faint microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang 13 billion years ago was not evenly spread throughout the cosmos - called "anisotropy" - suggested that large-scale models of the shape of the universe, previously thought to be a flat expanse of space time, were wrong.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=511575

The universe is not round, say scientists - it is shaped like a trumpet
By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor
15 April 2004


At first they thought it was flat. Then that it was shaped like a football. But now, scientists believe the universe could be shaped like a flat-sided trumpet.

That would lead to strange effects in some parts of the universe, where time and light would be so curved that you could see the back of your own head. Also, a long-held theory about the universe - that it looks much the same anywhere - would have to be abandoned. And finally, the universe would be finite, rather than extending in every direction forever.

The new shape, predicted by careful mathematical modelling to fit with known astronomical data, would have the universe stretched out into a long funnel, flaring into a bell-like shape at one end. The thin end would be infinitely long - but so narrow that it would have a finite volume.

The "bell" of the trumpet would also be peculiar: it would flare out, but a spaceship that could somehow navigate towards the open end would eventually find itself flying back along the "outside surface" of the bell.

The research by a team of German physicists led by Frank Steiner at the University of Ulm is reported today in New Scientist magazine.

Their theory uses a complex mathematical model called a "Picard topology", named after a mathematician rather than the Star Trek character. It would mean the universe has a finite volume, although you would not be aware of its "edges"; they would seem to be part of the rest of space.<snip>

[ewagner]

1. What was that Einstein said?

Something about the Universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we CAN imagine.

[papau]

3. I love this stuff!

:-)

[Mr.Green93]

2. a trumpet on a turtle's back