- 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.
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- 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.
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- He used data from the Wilkinson microwave anisotropy
probe (WMAP) to conclude that the universe probably does not go on forever.
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- 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," Mr Watts said. "In
an infinite universe, you'd have these waves of all different lengths."
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- 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,"
Mr Watts said. This points to a finite universe.
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- But a finite universe does not mean there are edges.
Mr 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.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1058868,00.html
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- Comment
- From The Quark To The Cosmos --
A Response To 'Universe Is Shaped Like A Football'
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- By Archaeos Prime
chronopilot@yahoo.com
10-11-3
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- Dear Jeff,
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- I just read that scientist Jeff Watts dicovered "the
universe is > shaped like a football", or more accurately, like
a dodecahedron. > Universe Is Shaped Like A Football, Says Scientist
http://rense.com/general42/foot.htm http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1058868,00.html
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- He's probably on the right track saying the universe
is finite, but also stated that, "If a someone were to travel out
to the 'edge' of this shape, they would end up coming back in through the
opposite face."
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- However, I see some problems with this theory...
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- 1. Where is the basis for a universe that is a self-contained
trap? No support is provided for this portion of his conclusions.
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- 2. Where is the basis for the theory of a single universe,
as opposed to a cosmos with unlimited universes making up unlimited cosmoses,
making up an even larger unit that is a collection of cosmoses, ad nauseum?
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- To me, the pattern of life is clear and consistent:
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- Starting with quarks which, by extrapolation, could simply
be the orbital cloud of even smaller particles.
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- Whether they are or not, we know that quarks make up
protons or neutrons, which are the nuclei of an orbital cloud of electrons,
making up atoms.
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- Atoms zip around like lightning and make up molecules.
Therefore molecules are basically clouds of atoms.
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- Elements are basically dense (what we'd call solid) clouds
of molecules.
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- All animal, plant and mineral matter are basically dense
(solid) clouds of elements.
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- The planetary core has an orbiting "cloud"
of animal, plant and/or mineral matter, whether or not we happen to be
stuck to its surface by gravity. Once we leave the surface, planets are
also the nuclei of any orbital "cloud" of moons, tiny meteors
or dust they may possess.
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- Many suns (possibly the majority?) are the nuclei of
solar systems, with orbital "clouds" of planets.
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- The dense galaxy core (possibly a black "hole"
of superdense matter) is the nuclei of orbiting "clouds" of solar
systems (plus free floating stars, rocks and dust).
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- The center of the universe, (wherever that is, and which
we probably can't see from here if it's further away than the age of the
universe in lightyears), is the nucleus of the orbiting "cloud"
of galaxies.
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- The center of the cosmos would, by extrapolation, have
an orbiting "cloud" of universes. So if true, and we flew beyond
the edge of this universe, we'll simply meet a vast void, and then eventually
another universe.
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- So we now face only two logical questions... currently
the true limits of our science and our imaginations, in both directions,
inward and outward:
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- 1. What do the cosmoses orbit? 2. What do the quarks
orbit?
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- And all we're really doing, while we talk about this,
is going around in circles.
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- Archaeos Prime > Renegade Patriot
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