Is this the first you've heard of the expansion of the universe? It does not conflict with relativity. Relativity at first predicted it, although Einstein was unnerved enough to find a way to revise that feature out. The universe has some finite volume (although incredibly huge, far far bigger than the part we can see) but no edge or surface. Within it, everything is still relative to the observer's frame of reference. Outside of it... who knows?
Nope, it's not the first I've heard of the expansion of the universe.
I remember the epicycles and geometrics of a past age too.
It's pretty clear to me that we're in one of those "epicycle phases" of our knowledge, where what we're seeing is odd and doesn't work very well with something else we think, but all we've got is the model so we have to soldier on until someone has a brilliant insight that makes the thing simpler and rational.