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Shape of the Universe Determined To Be Really, Really Flat

Posted by timothy on from the how-flat-was-it dept.

StartsWithABang writes: You might imagine all sorts of possibilities for how the Universe could have been shaped: positively curved like a higher-dimensional sphere, negatively curved like a higher-dimensional saddle, folded back on itself like a donut/torus, or spatially flat on the largest scales, like a giant Cartesian grid. Yet only one of these possibilities matches up with our observations, something we can probe simply by using our knowledge of how light travels in both flat and curved space, and measuring the CMB, the source of the most distant light in the Universe. The result? A Universe that's so incredibly flat, it's indistinguishable from perfection. Which means it's probably even flatter than Kansas.

8 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Kansas isn't even remotely flat by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not sure what OP is on about.

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    1. Re:Kansas isn't even remotely flat by LogicLoop · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not only is Kansas flat, it's literally flatter than a pancake.

    2. Re:Kansas isn't even remotely flat by sjames · · Score: 4, Funny

      Little known fact, the first part of The Wizard of Oz was also in color, it's just that Kansas is actually sepia tone.

  2. A Dutch universe ! by vikingpower · · Score: 1, Funny

    Let us build dykes in the void outside the universe, and polder in some more vacuum !

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    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
  3. Body of Christ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The universe is a communion wafer.

  4. Multiverse, somebody has it by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, who are the lucky bastards who get the Dolly Parton universe?

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    Table-ized A.I.
  5. Re:Let's just humour them by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Funny

    You fail to understand what scientists know versus what they speculate about.

    Making the assumption that they are even somewhat accurate about the big bang (unlikely), the math used to get there breaks down and doesn't work as the size approaches infinitely small. Everything is just speculation from unimaginative scientists who think they know what happened 14 billion years ago at some random spot that they can't even point their finger in the general direction of.

    That does not mean that space was not infinitely large while at the same time infinitely small, its all a matter of perspective. Outside looking in, its infinitely small, inside looking out its infinitely large.

    Note: We can't get an accurate police report 20 minutes after the event with 20 eye witnesses, but many are dead set that we KNOW what happened during the big bang. When you think about things like this, use your head and think about the police report.

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  6. Flatter than Kansas? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Which means it's probably even flatter than Kansas.

    The band or the state?

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