What are some theories about the shape of the universe?

Question

i know two (not sure of the names):

1. if you went in a straight like in a rocketship, and at some time you would come back to your original spot.

2. space has a distance infinite in every direction

Answer 1

This is information from the Plejarens - ETs who contacted Billy Meier - he is a UFO contactee who has had physical contact with ETs - See the DVD "The Silent Revolution of Truth" for the evidence/proof of his contacts.

www.figu.org [English Discussion Board]

Our Place in the Universe

Creation begins from an idea formed by the Absolute Absolutum - the ultimate and

highest form of Creation.  Creation starts as a tiny speck the size of a flea of

highly concentrated spiritual energy.  Then a "spiritual" explosion occurs,

instantly filling the entire area the Universe initially occupies.

Creation continues in expansion period during which celestial bodies and

life forms are created.  Thereupon Creation begins to contract for the

same time period as the expansion phase.  During the contraction Creation

ceases to create new life forms.  Once Creation fully retracts into a minute,

concentrated form, it enters a slumber state.

Creation's twilight slumber period lasts seven times as long as the entire

previous expansion/contraction cycle.  During Creation's twilight slumber

our entire Universe (called the Dern) and all life ceases to exist.

For as long as no Creational thought exists, the Universe is devoid of power,

time and space.  There is merely duration in a nameless Nothing.  

Only upon its renewed awakening does Creation begin to create a new idea

for the next universe.  FOllowing the rest period, a second cycle begins

once Creation awakens, becomes existent and repeats the expansion/contraction

cycle.  This second "awake" period lasts for as long as the previous "rest"

period.  This cycle repeats itself seven times in all, and in each successive

expansion period the material created in the coarse material belt becomes

increasingly finer and analogous to the composition of spiritual energy.

Upon the completion of seven of those awake/slumber periods Creation evolves

into an Ur-Creation, which itself must also go through seven steps similar to

the previous ones.  Once the evolutionary process advances through 10 to

the power of 49 stages, each having seven steps, Creation reaches the

Absolute Absolutum.  However, even this is not the final level, for the

Absolute Absolutum must evolve even higher.

Our Dern Universe will expand for 155 x 10 power of 12 years and then contract

over the same amount of time for a total of 311,04 x 10 to the power of 12

(311 trillion 40 billion) years.  At the present we are nearly 46 trillion

years into the second expansion cycle since the Big Bang took place.

Answer 2

I don't know if this is going to be much help, but here is what NASA and Wikipedia have to say about the Universe's shape.  As for myself, I think the universe occupies a roughly spherical area of space and I don't know what is beyond that, possibly empty space or more universes.  This idea would require us to give up the definition of universe as everything, or maybe do a "Pluto" on it and just think up a new word to define it.  We could separate out the meanings of universe and cosmos, calling our known universe the universe, and everything everywhere the cosmos.  This is, in some cases, being done informally anyway, even though their definitions are the same.

"The density of the universe also determines its geometry. If the density of the universe exceeds the critical density, then the geometry of space is closed and positively curved like the surface of a sphere. This implies that initially parallel photon paths converge slowly, eventually cross, and return back to their starting point (if the universe lasts long enough).

If the density of the universe is less than the critical density, then the geometry of space is open, negatively curved like the surface of a saddle. If the density of the universe exactly equals the critical density, then the geometry of the universe is flat like a sheet of paper. Thus, there is a direct link between the geometry of the universe and its fate.

The simplest version of the inflationary theory, an extension of the Big Bang theory, predicts that the density of the universe is very close to the critical density, and that the geometry of the universe is flat, like a sheet of paper. That is the result confirmed by the WMAP science."

"Spherical universe

A positively curved universe is described by spherical geometry, and can be thought of as a three-dimensional hypersphere, or some other spherical 3-manifold (such as the Poincaré dodecahedral space), all of which are quotients of the 3-sphere.

Hyperbolic universe

A hyperbolic universe is described by hyperbolic geometry, and can be thought of locally as a three-dimensional analog of an infinitely extended saddle shape.

Flat universe

In a flat universe, all of the local curvature and local geometry is flat. It is generally assumed that it is described by an Euclidean space, however there are some spatial geometries which are flat and bounded in one or more directions.

Absent dark energy, a flat universe expands forever but at a continually decelerating rate, with expansion asymptotically approaching some fixed rate. With dark energy, the expansion rate of the universe initially slows down, due to the effect of gravity, but eventually increases. The ultimate fate of the universe is the same as that of an open universe.

Proposed models

Various models have been proposed for the global geometry of the universe. In addition to the primitive geometries, these proposals include the:

Poincaré dodecahedral space, a positively curved space, colloquially described as "soccer ball shaped", as it is the quotient of the 3-sphere by the binary icosahedral group, which is very close to icosahedral symmetry, the symmetry of a soccer ball.

Picard horn, a negatively curved space, colloquially described as "funnel-shaped", for the horn geometry."

Answer 3

do you want personal, unproven or un-looked-at theory?.... here's mine......

being a child of the Cold War, the 'mushroom cloud' was what I associate the splitting of an atom with...... that cloud, to me, is much like the 'first effect'.... if the Expansion was as instantaneous in that huge dimension as the detonation is in this smaller dimension, then couldn't the shape of the cloud be somewhat like the shape of the Universe?... (taking into account the presence of atmosphere here, of course_)..... anyways. I see the Universe's shape as much like a torus.... but at the top of the 'beginning' ... kinda like a fountain effect.... everything spitting 'up' high and straight until it fountains out and then down over the sides of the donut... but then it continues to curve back to the 'donut hole' and up and over the edge of the donut again.... perhaps losing a little  distance travelled in the up and over.... shrinking, as it were, the torus..... and thus, to shrinking back to the 'singularity' ..... this , to me, explains why everything is moving away from us, too.... here's a torus.... I hope I've not explained my idea so badly that you can't follow me......

http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au...

what got me going on this is that this 'design' is seen in other places in the Universe, too...

like here...

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/fuzz...

and here...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:...

here again....

http://vleeptronz.blogspot.com/2007/08/c...

http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/theory/images....

along the lines of a magnetic field...

http://www.planetaryexploration.net/jupi...

could it be moving  like this?....

http://www.metaspherical.com/pics/geomet...

mathematically, the torus is beautiful..... and it's even been suggested as a design for a space station..... so , like the spiral (!!), it's a design that is repeated in the Universe because it works well.....

and that 's MY idea.....and one reason why I'm beginning a study of physics at this late date.....

Answer 4

There is a theory (widely accepted and proven) that the universe is constantly expanding.. equally in all directions, as you said.  It has also been proposed that the universe will one day recede until it is smaller than an atom, when another big bang will occur... just hypotheses.

check out string theory, it might intrigue you... its the idea proposed by respected physicists that there is a parallel universe.

Answer 5

i think some different.

if  u r in space & u r going to any direction u cannot come to that spot of ur journey second time.

bcoz the space may be it which was before but the time must be changed and the space must be changed with time.

soooooooooo

u understood my thoughts?

i liked ur que. very interesting & keep sharing ur thoughts like this with me.

Answer 6

There are three categories for the possible spatial geometries of constant curvature, depending on the sign of the curvature. If the curvature is exactly zero, then the local geometry is flat; if it is positive, then the local geometry is spherical, and if it is negative then the local geometry is hyperbolic (saddle shaped) .

Answer 7

Most astronomers would like to know the shape of the universe too! There are three general possibilities. First, like your balloon, the universe might have what we call positive curvature, like a sphere. In this case, which we call a "closed" universe, the universe would be finite in size but without a boundary, just like the balloon. In a closed universe, you could, in principle, fly a spaceship far enough in one direction and get back to where you started from. Closed universes are also closed in time: they eventually stop expanding, then contract in a "Big Crunch." All the geometry that is true on a sphere is also true in a closed unvierse: parallel lines eventually converge (e.g. longitude lines are parallel at the equator, but converge at the poles), large triangles have more than 180 degrees, etc.

The second possibility is that the universe is flat. This kind of universe you can imagine by cutting out a piece of your baloon material and stretching it with your hands. The surface of the material is flat, not curved, but you can expand and contract it by tugging on either end. Flat universes are infinite in spatial extent, and have no boundaries. Parallel lines are always parallel and triangles always have 180 degrees. Flat universes expand forever, but the expansion rate approaches zero.

Finally, the universe might be "open," or have negative curvature. Such universes are sort of saddle-shaped. They are also infinite and unbounded. Parellel lines eventually diverge, and triangles have less than 180 degrees. Open universes expand forever, with the expansion rate never approaching zero.

Of all those, the "flat" universe is the most widely accepted, particularly since the WMAP mission returned the most precise mapping of the cosmic microwave background radiation.