Ric: Edge of the universe:
Site: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/apo50925.html
Explanation: Analyses of a new high-resolution map of microwave light emitted only 380,000 years after the Big Bang appear to define our universe more precisely than ever before. The eagerly awaited results announced last year from the orbiting Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe resolve several long-standing disagreements in cosmology rooted in less precise data. Specifically, present analyses of above WMAP all-sky image indicate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old (accurate to 1 percent), composed of 73 percent dark energy, 23 percent cold dark matter, and only 4 percent atoms, is currently expanding at the rate of 71 km/sec/Mpc (accurate to 5 percent), underwent episodes of rapid expansion called inflation, and will expand forever. Astronomers will likely research the foundations and implications of these results for years to come.
There is an egg shaped picture offered in the above, which would, I think, cause many to imply that the universe has a positive shape and that our chicken got there first. We have narrowed down the origins to within 1% (no small thing) and the rate of expansion, about 71 km/sec., is concluded accurate to 5% of what may be happening in real time. With out the accepted credentials normally offered I must offer one layman?s view. Any average person reading and looking at the depiction should think that there is some edge to the universe. If the universe is constantly expanding we might wonder into what are we expanding? Possibly our universe is compressing some other universe that is compressing some other universe, etc.?
I suppose we can chalk it up to my ignorance of the relativity of space-time and I will concede that up front. Possibly we could best convey the idea by saying that the CONTENT of the universe is constantly expanding and that would offer some of us the prospect that the universe itself is everywhere so there is no need for an outside or an edge. If space, our idea of the universe is everywhere, then we are only concerned with the contents and edges play no part in our understanding.
So, while there is no apparent proof that our universe has an edge, or limit, there is evidence that the contents of our universe become larger as we improve vision.
jjw
