Most astronomers think that the universe is infinite, but recent measurements suggest that it could be finite and relatively small. Indeed, as Jean-Pierre Luminet describes, we could be living in an exotic universe shaped rather like a football.

At a Glance: Cosmic topology

• There are three possibilities for the curvature of the universe: space can be flat, spherical or hyperbolic
• The geometry of the universe depends on its curvature and also on its topology, which governs the way space is connected and so determines if it is finite or infinite
• Measurements of the cosmic microwave background constrain the curvature of the universe and provide hints about its topology
• Recent data suggest that the universe might be multiply connected, like the left- and right-hand sides of the screen in a computer game
• Since the early 1990s the number of cosmo-topologists around the world has grown to more than 50


Read more... (Physicsweb)

I agree with this line of thought.

Gravitational geodesics effecting lightwaves is a established part of relativy and I have allway thought that the mathmatical model behind this implies that things like red-shift would be profoundly distored by the effects of gravitational 'lensing'

Best Regards.

I, too, have thought that there could be a significant enough chance that many of the galaxys dipicted in the hubble deep field could be reflected light through who knows what. With light shifting frequencies and reflections coming at many angles, it is quite possible. Two non-barred spiral galaxys appearing to be somewhat similar could actually be the same galaxy.

As no human knows whether or not there is a "boundry" to our universe, the boundry conditions are completely undefined. Whether they exist or don't--we probably won't know for eons. Who's to say?

between gravitational lensing, the potential for light reflectivity and known spectra shifts, I think it is unwise to assume that we have any idea how large the universe is. One thing we do know for certain. It's worth investigating.

I think it might be interesting to try and write software that would 'attempt' to compensate for some of this based on trying to calcuate just how the light would be effected by a few of the local stars using Gab=8pi k/c2 Tab, also one would have to compensate for the effects of our own sun, larger bodies, etc..it would be a radiosity from hell problem heh.

And we cant be sure if G=T is even right ( complete ), even tho its really impossible to prove until we can get far enough away from this solor system to test it; it would be interesting to look at.

Also, the 'wobble' people are using to find planets around other stars could just be some kind of phasing.

An of course I can hear the Sacred Cow of Red Shift mooooing

Best Regards.