infinite pill-shaped universe?

Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.

Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam

"Liam" wrote in message
ps.com...
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.

Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam


What if the early Universe had an axial spin to it and with that spin, it
had developed a slight equatorial bulge, pretty much like Earth has. Now if
that spin were to slow down over time, could it create the opposite of a,
equatorial bulge, something like an equatorial waist, which would give it a
pill-shaped, somewhat oblong appearance, or would it still remain a sphere
??

Hagar wrote:
"Liam" wrote in message
ps.com...
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.

Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam


What if the early Universe had an axial spin to it and with that spin, it
had developed a slight equatorial bulge, pretty much like Earth has. Now if
that spin were to slow down over time, could it create the opposite of a,
equatorial bulge, something like an equatorial waist, which would give it a
pill-shaped, somewhat oblong appearance, or would it still remain a sphere
??

But the question remains, how can an infinite universe have a finite
and discernable shape?

Hagar wrote:
"Liam" wrote in message
ps.com...
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.

Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam


What if the early Universe had an axial spin to it and with that spin, it
had developed a slight equatorial bulge, pretty much like Earth has. Now if
that spin were to slow down over time, could it create the opposite of a,
equatorial bulge, something like an equatorial waist, which would give it a
pill-shaped, somewhat oblong appearance, or would it still remain a sphere
??



Long ago, I wrote a 4-D cad system. I could pretty much show you a
large number of shapes; diamond-like, box-like, square like, tube-like -
and they all were the same thing, a projection of a 4D object onto 3
dimensions, and then onto a 2D screen.

It's meaningless to talk about a 'shape' when there is no frame of
reference to judge that shape by. I personally hope we're in a Marilyn
Monroe universe, complete with red velvet backdrop. Makes about as much
sense as a pill.....

Liam wrote:
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.


The universe cannot have both come out of the Big Bang and be infinite.
It has to be one or the other.


Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam


"An ellipsoid universe could be caused by a magnetic field pervading
the cosmos that stretches space-time, he said, or by space-time defects
such as cosmic strings, immensely dense structures just a proton or so
wide stretched to intergalactic scales, whose gravity could distort
space and time."


Did anyone consider spin?

Double-A

Double-A wrote:

The universe cannot have both come out of the Big Bang and be infinite.
It has to be one or the other.

Sure it can. You can have a shape with an infinite volume but a finite
boundary, and vice-versa.

Double-A wrote:
Liam wrote:
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Now, I've just come to grips with the concept of the universe being
infinite and expanding out of a Big...Expanding like "raisin bread" or
an infinitely thick skin of a balloon.


The universe cannot have both come out of the Big Bang and be infinite.
It has to be one or the other.


Well, as I understand it, "The Big Bang" is a huge misnomer (and is a
term not even created by scientists.)
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/nocenter.html
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html
Evidently the commonly accepted theory is the infinite universe
basically expanded out as every point is the center, and every point
was the origin of a Big Expansion. Like an infinitely thick expanding
balloon skin and or rising raisin bread.


Now this pill-shaped thing? I can't reconcile this in my mind.

Could someone help me understand how both of these can be true, or
whether one theory undermines the other?

Thanks!
Liam


"An ellipsoid universe could be caused by a magnetic field pervading
the cosmos that stretches space-time, he said, or by space-time defects
such as cosmic strings, immensely dense structures just a proton or so
wide stretched to intergalactic scales, whose gravity could distort
space and time."


Did anyone consider spin?

Double-A

CptDondo wrote:
Double-A wrote:

The universe cannot have both come out of the Big Bang and be infinite.
It has to be one or the other.

Sure it can. You can have a shape with an infinite volume but a finite
boundary, and vice-versa.


Sounds like a black hole.

Double-A

"Liam" wrote in message
ps.com...
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html

Well, back in 2003 the universe was shaped like a soccer ball:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...euniverse.html

Now it's shaped like a pill.

I would suggest that the universe will continue to change shape as long as
scientists need to publish papers....

Liam wrote:
Just found this CNN article where measured cosmic radioactivity seems
to indicate the universe is pill-shaped:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/1...ill/index.html


Egg-shaped Universe? Probably Not
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm#News

"30 Sep 2006 - The Los Angeles Times has a story today about the
paper* that suggests the Universe might be egg-shaped, and that
this might explain the low quadrupole seen in the WMAP (and COBE
DMR) CMB anisotropy maps. This was a silly paper and I said as
much to the reporter John Johnson. Adding an additional
quadrupole from the ellipsoidal Universe will make the
probability of the low observed quadrupole even smaller, unless
there is a reason that the quadrupole from the ellipticity will
be equal and nearly opposite to the quadrupole from inflation.
No such reason is given in this paper. Unfortunately the
referees for the Physical Review Letters missed this, and the
American Institute of Physics issued a press release
(subscription) about the paper".

*http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0606266