*Would traveling out in a "straight" line bring you back to where you started?*
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/05/19/would-a-long-journey-through-the-universe-bring-us-back-to-our-starting-point/#1781c2ccf6c5 In the writer's (Ethan Siegel's) *opinion*: On a cosmic scale, there is no indication that the Universe is anything other than infinite and flat. There is no evidence that features in one region of space also appear in any other well-separated region, nor is there evidence of a repeating pattern in the Universe's large-scale structure or the Big Bang's leftover glow. The only way we know of to turn a freely moving object around is via gravitation slingshot, not from cosmic curvature. And yet, it's a legitimate possibility that the Universe may, in fact, be finite in extent, but larger than our observations can currently take us. As the Universe unfolds over the coming billions of years, more and more of it (about 135% more, by volume) will become visible to us. If there's any hint that a long-distance journey would bring us back to our starting point, that's the only place we'll ever find it. Our only hope for discovering a finite but traversible Universe lies, quite ironically, in our far distant future. @philipthrift -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/30d645b0-cbdd-4caf-a640-63d538e6ddb2%40googlegroups.com.
