About fifteen scientists from seven countries united into the international comact group to find the answer to one of the main issues of cosmology : Where does the universe end and does it end at all? In April 2024, in the journal Physical Review Letters, they presented a new search method. Researchers are sure: previous attempts to determine the shape of space space have not exhausted all the possibilities. Now that powerful computers were at their disposal, which could only be dreamed of 10 years ago, humanity finally has a chance to advance in solving this riddle.
For the first time, Aristotle thought about this issue in 350 BC. The philosopher considered him “the most important in the search for truth.” Observing the heavenly bodies, he noticed that they were moving around the Earth in circular orbits. And since the body that moves in a circle cannot be endless, it means that the Universe must have borders.
The arguments of the ancient philosopher could not seem very convincing, but his conclusion may have been true. After more than two thousand years, we still do not know for sure whether the Universe is limited in space. It can be limitless, going into infinity in all directions, and can be closed into a compact form – for example, resemble a sphere or thor, a geometric figure in the form of a bagel.
“The size and form of the universe is one of the most important and fundamental issues that we can ask”- says Neil Kornish , an astrophysicist from the University of Montana, who is not part of the Compact collaboration. According to him, now the scientists have accumulated enough data to conduct the most complete analysis .
In 1998, in the article “Circles in the sky” Neil Kornish and Glenn Starkman proposed a way to study cosmic topology, which determined the direction of research for many years to come.
They suggested that light can reach the earth in different ways, traveling almost the entire time of the existence of the Universe. Just like a plane that can fly from Spain to New Zealand with two routes: either