The Universe May Be Shaped Like a Doughnut

NewbieV writes "The NY Times (reg., etc.) is reporting that data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe may suggest that the universe might be shaped like a doughnut or a cylinder: it might be possible, like in the old video game Spacewar, to drift off one 'side' of the Universe and reappear on the other."

Comments

So I guess that makes God..

[flinxmeister]

...the Cop of the Universe?

Coming up...

[Lemmy Caution]

The Krispy Kreme Endowment for Excellence in Cosmology.

Silly students

[ObviousGuy]

2 dimensional universes are shaped like donuts. 3 dimensional ones like ours are shaped like hyperspheres.

I guess they forgot to carry the 1.

Observations

[TWX_the_Linux_Zealot]

Then in theory, we'd be able to see the same part of space from two vantage points, assuming that they're not farther away from us than the distance that light could have travelled since the universe came into being, assuming that one believes in the big bang theory.

So, would this mean that if we can't see one point from two directions now, that if we suddenly can, we've reached the halfway point of the life of the universe? Would we lose the redshift in favour of a green shift?

Re:Observations

[Tablizer]

Then in theory, we'd be able to see the same part of space from two vantage points

SETI: "We found a signal! Yipeee! Wait, Is that a Toyota commercial? Damn! It is just us."

Actually Stephen Hawking predicted this already...

[Omega]

Did anyone here actually *read* A Brief History of Time? Hawking described how the gravity of the universe may be so intense that it causes the universe to wrap around into a spherical shape. Of course this was just a theory back when he wrote the book.

Re:The last thing Homer needs to learn...

[Dynedain]

Actually....in the episode where the Mensa society runs Springfield, Stephen Hawking shows up, and at the end says: "Homer, your idea of a doughnut-shaped universe is intriguing. I must steal it for my next book."

So does this mean....

[kaoshin]

Voyager could also become the first device of our civilization to sail around the entire universe?

Somewhere in the code running the universe...

[product byproduct]

/* comment this out to get an infinite universe */
if (particle->position.x < LEFT_LIMIT)
particle->position.x += RIGHT_LIMIT - LEFT_LIMIT;
else if (particle->position.x >= RIGHT_LIMIT)
particle->position.x -= RIGHT_LIMIT - LEFT_LIMIT;

Dr. Tegmark's original paper on the web

[LinuxParanoid]

There's also a BBC story on the same topic, or you can go straight to Dr. Tegmark's webpage version of his paper (with cool pics).

I've admired Dr. Tegmark's home page since he was a grad student, not so much for the design skills (ha!) but as an exemplar of mixing serious and non-serious publications for other colleauges and onlookers to enjoy, explore, and learn from. Tegmark gets the web. As for the science, some of it I can actually understand.

I would also commend to the curious Slashdot reader a couple items I found facinating from the 'non-serious' section of his website:

a very cool diagram of "Relationships between various basic mathematical structures" from his Theory of Everything paper

and another paper addressing the question: Why does the universe have 3 spatial and 1 time dimension?

--LP

How about the Star Trek: TNG references?

[PseudoThink]

Space is a toroid with finite size? Augh, I must be trapped in a static warp bubble! CleverNickName, this is all your fault!