Neil Cornish
Neil Cornish
billion earth life light results rule size telescope universe view wrap
If the universe was finite, and had a size of about 4 billion to 5 billion light-years, then light would be able to wrap around the universe, and with a big enough telescope we could view the Earth just after it solidified and when the first life formed. Unfortunately, our results rule out this tantalizing possibility.
spherical usual
It can be thought of as a spherical diameter is the usual sense.
background bang cosmic finite light microwave pairs pattern several since time universe
Several years ago we showed that any finite universe in which light had time to 'wrap around' since the Big Bang would have the same pattern of cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations around pairs of circles.