Astronomers studying radiation left over from the dawn of time believe the cosmos is the shape of a football.

They say it is a finite "dodecahedron" made of curved pentagons joined together.

However if you went out to the edge of the "ball" you would find yourself coming back in through the opposite face.

The research, reported in the journal Nature, is based on data from a space craft mapping the background radiation left over from the Big Bang.

Nasa's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe showed that temperature fluctuations across the sky are smaller than would be produced by an infinite universe.

New York mathematician Dr Jeffrey Weeks and colleagues worked out that a football-shaped finite universe best fitted the observations.

If the results are confirmed, they would mean the universe is relatively small - about 70 billion light years across.

They would also rule out exotic ideas such as "chaotic inflation" which proposes that our local universe is just one of a myriad expanding bubbles.

The scientists wrote: "Since antiquity, humans have wondered whether our universe is finite or infinite. Now, after more than two millennia of speculation, observational data might finally settle this ancient question."

Ananova

What if it was flat and if someone traveled far enough they would fall off the edge. I wonder what they would fall into?

so is that a football..the real football you know a like earth the moon and other planets...ROUND

or is it the football as in AMERICAN FOOTBALL...i.e sissy boy rugby

i would imagine that it is in the shape of a soccer football and not the american footballs (not sissy boy rugby) because how could the universe come to two points at the ends and then be curved on the edges?


that would just be wierd

WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST RUGBY!?

How about we call him Dorkmaster Dork?

Anyhoo, how have they ruled out the existence of other universes? I'm sure it's somewhere in the article, but I have a really short attention span.