New findings reveal that the shape of the Universe is a Dodecahedron based on Phi

Weird News ^ | 9/08

[LibWhacker]

The standard model of cosmology predicts that the universe is infinite and flat. However, cosmologists in France and the US are now suggesting that space could be finite and shaped like a dodecahedron instead. They claim that a universe with the same shape as the twelve-sided polygon can explain measurements of the cosmic microwave background – the radiation left over from the big bang – that spaces with more mundane shapes cannot.

Power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Data from WMAP have extended the accuracy of the spectrum far beyond what was known from earlier measurements. This plot reflects the small differences in the temperature of the CMB across the sky. There are a series of peaks in the spectrum at small angular separations, but at large scales that structure disappears. Standard cosmological models cannot explain this, but Luminet and colleagues’ topological model for a finite universe can (image and text credit: Nature 425 566).

The cosmic microwave background provides a picture of the universe as it was some 400 000 years after the big bang. By this time the universe had cooled down enough for atoms to form, which meant that there were no longer any free electrons to scatter the photons produced in the early universe. Any variations or anisotropy in the temperature of the background radiation therefore reflect variations in the density of the universe at this time.

These temperature fluctuations can be expressed as a sum of spherical harmonics, and astrophysicists plot the relative strength of these harmonics as a function of angle. The height and positions of the peaks in this so-called ‘power spectrum’ are related to basic astrophysical properties of the universe.
An image showing the view in a dodecahedral space universe

Data from the first year of the WMAP satellite – unveiled in February - agreed with the predictions of the standard big bang plus inflation model of cosmology for regions of space separated by small angles. However, on larger angular scales – greater than 60° - the WMAP observations were significantly lower than this model predicted.
Jean-Pierre Luminet of the Observatoire de Paris and colleagues believe that the finite size of the universe itself is responsible for this behaviour. Moreover, they show that the predictions of a model in which space consists of 12 curved pentagons joined together in a sphere agrees with the WMAP observations. Their ‘small’, closed universe should be about 30 billion light years across.

“Our work really addresses this ancient question of whether the universe is finite or infinite,” team member Jeff Weeks, a freelance mathematician based in New York, told PhysicsWeb. “The exciting point is that this is no longer pure speculation - we now have real data.”

The team says that its result, if confirmed, will have implications for theories and models of quantum gravity, inflation and the big bang itself. However, the model needs to be tested further by studying the microwave background at larger angles using more data from WMAP and the Planck Surveyor, which is due to be launched later this decade.

[TheWasteLand]

team member Jeff Weeks, a freelance mathematician based in New York

From the "jobs you never knew existed" file...

[Shadow44]

Ok, my head exploded.

[aft_lizard]

Wow, who would have guessed that the ancient Greeks would have gotten the shape of the universe correct so long ago. Obviously they were talking something slightly different, aether, but the fact that Plato and Aristotle postulated the shape of it to be the dodecahedron is very interesting indeed. Did the scientist who did this study belong to the Pythagorean cult?

[EggsAckley]

Wow! I live in a dodecahedron. 12-sided round round house. I can tell you that it is a real challenge doing interior decorating. And the only interior walls are the bedroom and bathroom. The rest is open.....kind of like a circus tent.

Everyone calls it an octagon. They’ve never heard of dodecahedron.

[rfp1234]

So THAT’S why soccer is so popular...

[Kevmo]

Pinging my favorite Freeper Cosmologists.

[steveo]

[Doug TX]

Wow....you can use that universe shape to predict the DOW move this week!.....lol

[LibWhacker]

Cool, I just clicked on that link at the bottom of the page and was reading about that. Amazing!

[The_Reader_David]

The article posted was clearly written by someone who didn't understand the findings. The claim of Weeks et al is not that the space forms a finite dodecahedron (with a boundary consisting of 12 pentagons), but that it forms a copy of the Poincare dodecahedral space (also known as the Poincare homology sphere): the result of starting with a dodecahedron oriented so 'north' goes through the center of one face, and gluing each face in the northern half to the face in southern half that becomes opposite to it when the northern half is given a 1/5 twist.

The result of is finite volume, but has no boundary. (Just like the surface of a sphere has no bounding edge, but is of finite area, but up one dimension.)

Here's a link to an article in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society with more details.

[LibWhacker]

Neener, neener, neener, now we all live in a dodecahedron! :-)

[6SJ7]

...they show that the predictions of a model in which space consists of 12 curved pentagons joined together in a sphere agrees with the WMAP observations. Their ‘small’, closed universe should be about 30 billion light years across.

Hmm. If the universe has a boundary, doesn't that imply a frame of reference external to the universe? That would seem to violate the concept of universe.

[aft_lizard]

Wel that shows my nerdiness then because I didnt even know they linked to that, lol. I just took a history of science course over the summer and we talked about the elemental shapes and the fifth element which is aether. Pretty cool stuff when you really think about it.

[LS]

And all this time I thought the universe was shaped like Raquel Welch. You learn something every day.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I was put in mind of Kepler's "Harmony of the Spheres"

[LibWhacker]

I certainly did not know the following fact (just found it on another website):::::"A soccer ball is a truncated icosahedron: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_icosahedron"

About a quarter of the way down http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PlatoSolid.htm, there's a nice little interactive chart showing various polyhedra. You can set them rotating, etc., and see that a dodecahedron and soccer ball are quite different.

[Twinkie]

Yep. Our heads exploded . . Just thinking about jillions and jillions of galaxies similar to ours with centers consisting of gulping black holes all fitting into dodecahedron shapes is just too much for my noggin. It all makes me feel underweight and small. I think I’ll go eat a donut now. - Oh, and there are probably also jillions and jillions of dodecahedrons in a never-ending bunch of them ad infinitum. - I think I’ll eat two donuts. Sigh. . .

[caveat emptor]

So THAT’S why soccer is so popular..

A truncated icosaahedron.
vs.

[LibWhacker]

I think "they" would say the universe doesn't have a boundary, just as the two-dimensional surface of a sphere doesn't have a boundary (yet it does have a spherical shape).

So these guys would say our universe doesn't have a boundary either (i.e., you'll never bump into an impassable wall by moving around in it), but it does have a dodecahedral shape.