Sometimes at night I go to my roof, I look philosophically at the sky, and I imagine light years of space trying to come to an end, but after seconds of reflection I realize that after the last thing I could ever imagine be something else. Is space infinite or have a limit?.
Edwin Hubble in 1929 showed us that galaxies are moving away from each other due to the stretching of the space between them, so that sometime in the past should have been very close together. From that time until now have spent 13,700 million years, according to estimates Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) . If the space itself was tiny in the past and has only been a period of time, the universe would have grown to a finite size. But why do scientists say we do not know whether it is finite or infinite?.
The truth is that we make a grave error to think that the beginning of the expansion occurred at a certain point, an epicenter of the universe. On the Cosmological Principle enunciated by Albert Einstein in 1915 know that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic, which means that the universe is the same everywhere point in space and looks the same in all directions, so that anywhere in the cosmos can be the point where universal expansion began. This expansion occurred in all parts of the universe at the same time, so that even for us Radio Telescope was 13,700 million light-years away from that volume would also be more places where he also began expansion and also the radii of Hubble would be worth the same. In this way we get the same problem as above, is the universe finite or infinite?.
turns out that the finitude or infinity of the universe has to do with its geometry and topology. Recent data obtained from the FCM the geometry of the universe is flat or Euclidean, ie the angles of any triangle add up to 180 ยบ cosmic. This will rule out any possible universes closed hyperbolic universes (shaped like a saddle).
The key to the finitude or infinity of the universe is therefore the same topology. There are two types of structures according to the Euclidean topology:
- simply connected universe.
- related multiple universe.
What is this?. To understand us imagine that the universe was one-dimensional, ie a straight line and that people who live there are only one-dimensional points. Points could only move in opposite directions, so that each direction would lead to new and unexplored sites if the line is infinite. This is called simply connected universe as it only has one direction to reach a certain place. If the line would be finite could be two cases that had two ends (edges of the universe) or these ends from joining together forming a circle. According to the Cosmological Principle, and there is no center of the universe, nor is there an edge, since all parts of the universe are the same and looks the same look in the direction you look. Thus if the universe were finite would have no edges, so dimensional universe represented by a finite straight line, you should have two ends or edges together in a circle. Dimensional points or bodies could reach the same place along two different directions. This universe is called multiply connected. Similarly
a universe of two-dimensional or flat, may be infinite and simply connected, or related finite and multiply forming a sphere. It would be like the surface of the Earth by which we can reach the North Pole in both northbound and southbound.
Now comes the hard part, that is to extrapolate this to a three-dimensional universe, which is where we live. If it were simply connected would be infinite, but if it would multiply related finite and yet would have no edges. Never get to the end of the universe and always arrive at the same place we go in the direction we go.
The conclusion drawn is that the universe could be infinite or finite but multiply related. There are several lines of argument supporting the finitude of the universe, is the principle of Mach , which states that all matter in the universe provides the falling bodies, so that if the universe were infinite, inertia or resistance to movement of bodies, would be infinite and nothing could move.
therefore tend to think in a Euclidean universe finite and multiply-connected, although not ruled out the infinite universe. The shape of the universe only has 10 possibilities, a torus Tridimensional and nine simple variations of it.
However, a consequence that derives from the existence of this universe, each galaxy would be reflected in one or more points in the universe. This would be expected in a multiply connected finite universe, as the light of a galaxy that any direction would continue to gather in opposite point of the universe, which would see an exact copy of the same galaxy.
Astronomers have spent looking for images of the same galaxies in different parts of the universe, but the task is very complicated since different galaxies would show pictures of different moments in history and would have to recognize them. Thus, we have recently developed a method called Cosmic Crystallography, which involves making a histogram of distances between clusters of galaxies. If the images are repeated periodically the histogram would show a series of peaks that represent the actual size universe.
have already made the first histogram clusters of galaxies at distances of 2,000 million light-years, but the result is that at that distance the universe is finite and interconetado. The second graph will be based on data collected by the Sloan Digital Survey of Heaven that aims to map the cosmos far beyond the 2,000 million light-years.
addition of this technique is also being used by FCM to determine whether the universe is finite and interconnected. The FCM comes from all points of the universe forming a sphere, which itself would be cut if the universe were interconnected. The cut of two create a circle areas should be detected in the FCM as a circle with the same pattern of variation in temperature. It actually should see two circles that would be the same but viewed from different perspectives. Depending on the 10 types of three-dimensional torus will be more or fewer pairs of circles and their relative position will reveal which of them is.
The WMAP not detect these circles, but in 2007 the ESA will launch the Planck satellite to determine if there are circles.
Edwin Hubble in 1929 showed us that galaxies are moving away from each other due to the stretching of the space between them, so that sometime in the past should have been very close together. From that time until now have spent 13,700 million years, according to estimates Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) . If the space itself was tiny in the past and has only been a period of time, the universe would have grown to a finite size. But why do scientists say we do not know whether it is finite or infinite?.
The truth is that we make a grave error to think that the beginning of the expansion occurred at a certain point, an epicenter of the universe. On the Cosmological Principle enunciated by Albert Einstein in 1915 know that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic, which means that the universe is the same everywhere point in space and looks the same in all directions, so that anywhere in the cosmos can be the point where universal expansion began. This expansion occurred in all parts of the universe at the same time, so that even for us Radio Telescope was 13,700 million light-years away from that volume would also be more places where he also began expansion and also the radii of Hubble would be worth the same. In this way we get the same problem as above, is the universe finite or infinite?.
turns out that the finitude or infinity of the universe has to do with its geometry and topology. Recent data obtained from the FCM the geometry of the universe is flat or Euclidean, ie the angles of any triangle add up to 180 ยบ cosmic. This will rule out any possible universes closed hyperbolic universes (shaped like a saddle).
The key to the finitude or infinity of the universe is therefore the same topology. There are two types of structures according to the Euclidean topology:
- simply connected universe.
- related multiple universe.
What is this?. To understand us imagine that the universe was one-dimensional, ie a straight line and that people who live there are only one-dimensional points. Points could only move in opposite directions, so that each direction would lead to new and unexplored sites if the line is infinite. This is called simply connected universe as it only has one direction to reach a certain place. If the line would be finite could be two cases that had two ends (edges of the universe) or these ends from joining together forming a circle. According to the Cosmological Principle, and there is no center of the universe, nor is there an edge, since all parts of the universe are the same and looks the same look in the direction you look. Thus if the universe were finite would have no edges, so dimensional universe represented by a finite straight line, you should have two ends or edges together in a circle. Dimensional points or bodies could reach the same place along two different directions. This universe is called multiply connected. Similarly
a universe of two-dimensional or flat, may be infinite and simply connected, or related finite and multiply forming a sphere. It would be like the surface of the Earth by which we can reach the North Pole in both northbound and southbound.
Now comes the hard part, that is to extrapolate this to a three-dimensional universe, which is where we live. If it were simply connected would be infinite, but if it would multiply related finite and yet would have no edges. Never get to the end of the universe and always arrive at the same place we go in the direction we go.
The conclusion drawn is that the universe could be infinite or finite but multiply related. There are several lines of argument supporting the finitude of the universe, is the principle of Mach , which states that all matter in the universe provides the falling bodies, so that if the universe were infinite, inertia or resistance to movement of bodies, would be infinite and nothing could move.
therefore tend to think in a Euclidean universe finite and multiply-connected, although not ruled out the infinite universe. The shape of the universe only has 10 possibilities, a torus Tridimensional and nine simple variations of it.
However, a consequence that derives from the existence of this universe, each galaxy would be reflected in one or more points in the universe. This would be expected in a multiply connected finite universe, as the light of a galaxy that any direction would continue to gather in opposite point of the universe, which would see an exact copy of the same galaxy.
Astronomers have spent looking for images of the same galaxies in different parts of the universe, but the task is very complicated since different galaxies would show pictures of different moments in history and would have to recognize them. Thus, we have recently developed a method called Cosmic Crystallography, which involves making a histogram of distances between clusters of galaxies. If the images are repeated periodically the histogram would show a series of peaks that represent the actual size universe.
have already made the first histogram clusters of galaxies at distances of 2,000 million light-years, but the result is that at that distance the universe is finite and interconetado. The second graph will be based on data collected by the Sloan Digital Survey of Heaven that aims to map the cosmos far beyond the 2,000 million light-years.
addition of this technique is also being used by FCM to determine whether the universe is finite and interconnected. The FCM comes from all points of the universe forming a sphere, which itself would be cut if the universe were interconnected. The cut of two create a circle areas should be detected in the FCM as a circle with the same pattern of variation in temperature. It actually should see two circles that would be the same but viewed from different perspectives. Depending on the 10 types of three-dimensional torus will be more or fewer pairs of circles and their relative position will reveal which of them is.
The WMAP not detect these circles, but in 2007 the ESA will launch the Planck satellite to determine if there are circles.
