It is a question which has been kicking about for thousands of years: is our universe infinite? Today, scientists have announced the most compelling evidence yet which suggests that, not only is it finite, but it may be the shape of a football.
Jeff Watts, a mathematician based in New York and one of the lead authors of a paper in today’s Nature, said he and his team may have cracked the puzzle.
He used data from the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe (WMAP) to conclude that the universe probably does not go on forever.
WMAP was launched by Nasa two years ago to produce a map of the temperature fluctuations in the universe. ”You can look at the wavelengths of these fluctuations,” Watts said. ”In an infinite universe, you’d have these waves of all different lengths.”
But in a finite universe the waves would reach a maximum length. WMAP shows that for short and medium wavelengths, everything matches cosmologists’ predictions. ”The longest wavelengths are what’s missing,” Watts said. This points to a finite universe.
But a finite universe does not mean there are edges. Watts says the WMAP data shows that the shape of space may be based on a dodecahedron: a solid composed of 12 pentagons. If a someone were to travel out to the ”edge” of this shape, they would end up coming back in through the opposite face. – Guardian Unlimited Â