Universe is not infinite (Science Thursday)

The longest soudwaves from a bell can be no longer than the size of the bell. This has also been measured for the universe – how long are the longest waves in it? Turned out that they were pretty long, but there was a limit.

Further on in the article :

“Despite being finite, the Universe would not have any kind of edge. If a spacecraft blasted off in what we’d perceive to be a straight line – the line a beam of light would follow – it would eventually end up back where it started.

Because of this odd wraparound effect, the light from one galaxy could follow two different routes to the Earth, so the same galaxy would appear in two different parts of the sky. Effectively, the Universe would be like a hall of mirrors, with the wraparound effect producing multiple images of everything inside. ”

Cool! Estimated size: 70 billion light years across.

However, another group of scientists could not prove that the Universe was actually finite. I hope they will never figure it out. 🙂

2 Comments

  1. Niek

    Suppose our universe is indeed finite and has the wraparound effect, could it be that there is something outside our universe? And of so, could we somehow be able to get out of our “hall of mirrors” ?

  2. Acieed Ed

    According to Wittgenstein that does not matter. So instead of answering such a question, you should dismiss it.

    To be more exact: Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

    http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/w/wittgens.htm

    Read the interview with our famous Dutch writer WF Hermans (yes the same one) who claimed to be the only one to understand Wittgenstein in the book “Filosofie als Science Fiction”. Probably available at “De Slegte” for almost 0 E’s.

    The book is from 1968 and this are the details:
    Elders, Fons (red.), Aler, J.M.M., Baron van Haersolte, R.A.V., Beerling, R.F. e.a. Filosofie als science-fiction: interviews en een enquête; 17 debatten van [Fons Elders] met Nederlandse filosofen. Amsterdam, Polak & Van Gennep, 1968. 452 p.

    This guy: http://home.wanadoo.nl/e.zwartboeken/Filosofie.html sells it for 10 E’s

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