The Shape of the UniverseFrom MicaThe Shape of the Universe Rob Knop, February 27, 2010 at the MICA Large Amphitheater Where is the center of the Universe? Where did the Big Bang happen? It turns out that neither of these questions are entirely meaningful questions. To understand why, we need to talk about the shape of the Universe, and what the Big Bang theory really says. According to General Relativity, it turns out that space doesn't have to be Euclidean— that is, the geometry of space in our Universe doesn't have to obey the geometry we learned in high school math! However, when we measured it, we found out that, perhaps to your relief, it was... at least, on the largest scales. But what the heck does all of this mean? In this talk, I'll give you some context about understanding "curved space" in Einstein's relativity, and describe how we measured the shape of the Universe. This is a sort of follow-on to this last Tuesday's "365 Days of Astronomy" podcast. Media |