Universe as Doughnut

[David Morris]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/11/science/space/11COSM.html?8isc

[...]

Rather than being infinite in all directions, as the most fashionable theory
suggests, the universe could be radically smaller in one direction than the
others. As a result it may be even be shaped like a doughnut.

"There's a hint in the data that if you traveled far and fast in the direction
of the constellation Virgo, you'd return to Earth from the opposite direction,"
said Dr. Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new data have generated both buzz and skepticism among cosmologists in
recent weeks. Dr. Tegmark and other astronomers agree that the measurements are
far from conclusive, or even persuasive about the shape of the universe.

But if true, the doughnut universe would force cosmologists to reconsider their
theories about what happened in the earliest moments after the universe was
born in the Big Bang; those theories predict an infinite cosmos. 



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