what shape is the entire universe?

Answer 1

The universe is a 5 dimensional hypersphere. What is this? Well it is impossible for us to visualize this so the best way is to think of it like this.

Imagine you are a microbe that lives on a large, totally smooth planet (no hills or valleys). As far as you are concerned, there is no up or down, just left or right and backwards or forwards. To you, this would be your view of the universe - a flat 2 dimensional plane. Now, if you set off in any direction in a straight line what would happen? You would eventually come back to where you started as you moved right around the planet - but as far as you knew you went in a straight line, but in reality you would have travelled round the planet in the 3rd dimension.

What elso would you have noticed? Well, no matter where you travel on the surface of the planet you would never come to an edge (remember, no up and down) and you would never be at the center. However you would have travelled a finite distance to get back to the starting point. The term for this is an unbounded area - finite size but no edge or center.

The real universe is the same, except that we, of course, have 3 dimensions to move in. If we went in any direction, we would eventually return to our starting point, but just like our 2 dimensional microbe, we would never meet the edge or the center. How is this possible? Well, the universe is curved through a 4th dimension (hyperspace) which we cannot perceive, but the effect is the same. So we live in an finite but unbounded volume. The mathematical name for this is a hypersphere or 4D sphere.

At the start, I mentioned that the shape of the universe is a 5 dimensional hypershere. The extra dimension is time. So we have 1 dimension of time, 3 dimensions of "real-space" that we can see and 1 "hyperspace" dimension that gives the universe its shape.

Some science theories predict the existance of even more space dimensions, perhaps 10, 11 or even 26! but there is no proof so far.

Answer 2

Some people here have said that the universe is expanding from a point. That's not correct. Wherever you are in the universe you can look around and see that most things are moving away from you. One way to think about it is that the idea of "distance" is increasing everywhere as time passes.

Imagine you're on the surface of a balloon and someone is inflating it. Wherever you are on the balloon, every other part of the surface will be moving away from you.

As for the shape of the universe - this is something which depends on how much matter there is. According to general relativity matter and energy curve space - so they control what shape it has. We don't have a definite idea of how much matter there is yet. People try and work it out by looking at how fast the universe is expanding. With more matter the extra gravity will slow the expansion down. It looks, from observations in the past few years, that the speed of the expansion is increasing. This could be due to a type of energy contained in space itself... which complicates the "weighing the universe" experiment.

Another thing that people are still trying to decide is how many dimensions space has. Obviously, we can see 3, and time is another so that makes 4. But it makes perfect mathematical sense - and can even help to explain the forces of nature - if there are more. Think about a rope or cable - on a large scale (from far away) it looks like a line - like a 1dimensional object. But if you look close you can see another direction curled up around the rope, so on a small scale there is another dimension.

String theorists suggest that the universe is like this on a VERY small scale - billions of times smaller than an atom.

So in answer to your question... I don't know :)

Answer 3

An important open question of cosmology is the shape of the universe. Mathematically, which 3-manifold represents best the spatial part of the universe?

Firstly, whether the universe is spatially flat, i.e. whether the rules of Euclidean geometry are valid on the largest scales, is unknown. Currently, most cosmologists believe that the observable universe is very nearly spatially flat, with local wrinkles where massive objects distort spacetime, just as a lake is (nearly) flat. This opinion was strengthened by the latest data from WMAP, looking at "acoustic oscillations" in the cosmic microwave background radiation temperature variations.

Secondly, whether the universe is multiply connected, is unknown. The universe has no spatial boundary according to the standard Big Bang model, but nevertheless may be spatially finite (compact). This can be understood using a two-dimensional analogy: the surface of a sphere has no edge, but nonetheless has a finite area. It is a two-dimensional surface with constant curvature in a third dimension. The 3-sphere is a three-dimensional equivalent in which all three dimensions are constantly curved in a fourth.

If the universe is indeed spatially finite, as described, then traveling in a "straight" line, in any given direction, would theoretically cause one to eventually arrive back at the starting point.

Strictly speaking, we should call the stars and galaxies "views" of stars and galaxies, since it is possible that the universe is multiply-connected and sufficiently small (and of an appropriate, perhaps complex, shape) that we can see once or several times around it in various, and perhaps all, directions. (Think of a house of mirrors.) If so, the actual number of physically distinct stars and galaxies would be smaller than currently accounted. Although this possibility has not been ruled out, the results of the latest cosmic microwave background research make this appear very unlikely.

Answer 4

The Universe is not infinite. If you accept that it emerged from the "Big Bang" at a finite time in the remote past, then by that fact alone, it can't be infinite. Here's a couple of links, but bear in mind that there's still strong conjecture over many aspects of the nature of the Universe, including it's age, size, shape and ultimate fate.

Answer 5

When the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went onto his night journey and left this physical universe, he was given a chance to look upon this universe before entering the next. He stated that this universe had an overall ring shape and was green in color.

Answer 6

Why cant you except there isnt a shape to the universe, its limitless, doesn't end... kinda like Eastenders, forever expanding for no reason!!!

Answer 7

round shape

Answer 8

Einstein's view says it's somewhat spherical. Circular.

Logic dictates this is so. Stars and planets are spherical. Orbits are circular.

"God" seems to be fond of round objects. It's man that's into mortars and pestiles!

Answer 9

It has a shape of orange or onion. Just look in the atlas.

Answer 10

The universe is finite, and I think it is round (given expansion from a single point).