Our understanding of the universe could be fundamentally wrong, astronomers say

Our understanding of the universe could be fundamentally wrong, scientists have said.

Newly released data from the Planck Telescope, which aimed to take very precise readings of the shape, size and ancient history of our universe, suggests that there could be something wrong in our physics, according to a new paper.

The issue could be an indication of a "crisis in cosmology" that may be as yet unrealised because of problems with our understanding of the shape of the universe, the authors of a new paper write.

At the moment, scientists generally believe that the universe is "flat". That is in keeping with large amounts of data gathered from telescopes peering deep into space, including readings from the European Space Agency's Planck Telescope.

But in a newly published paper, researchers note that the latest release of data from the same Planck telescope gave different readings than expected under our standard understanding of the universe. Those could be explained by the fact the universe is "closed", the authors write – which would help explain issues with the readings.

That could mean that our assumption of a flat universe may actually be "mask[ing] a cosmological crisis where disparate observed properties of the Universe appear to be mutually inconsistent", the authors write.

To resolve the problem, further research will be required to understand whether we have simply not detected another piece of the puzzle, or are simply a "statistical fluctuation". But they could also suggest that we are lacking a "new physics" that is yet to be discovered, they write.

The "shape" of the universe affects some of our most fundamental understanding of existence, deciding the geometry of how the cosmos is assembled.

In a flat universe, parallel lines will run forever, just like if you draw a set of them onto a sheet of paper. But if it is not flat, they intersect: if you draw two parallel lines onto a spherical object like a football, for instance, they run into each other on the other side.

Scientists have long been convinced the universe was shaped like that sheet of paper. But the new paper suggests that could be wrong, and it is not flat but rather closed.

The authors of the new paper say that if it is correct that the data from the Planck telescope suggests we are inside of a closed universe, it "introduces a new problem for modern cosmology".

Part of the issue is a consequence of the fact that our current precise understanding of the cosmos is arrived it by combining different datasets – measuring different things in different ways – together. Scientists generally assume that those datasets are consistent, and come from the same cosmological model.

But some of those datasets are actually in contradiction with each other. There has been intense discussion of exactly how fast the universe is expanding, for instance, and measurements from the Planck telescope have been in contradiction with others.

Scientists have tried to reconcile these differences with alterations to our understanding of physics, or to suggest that there might not be quite such a difference as thought. But those attempts have generally relied on the assumption of a flat universe, the authors write, and that may be incorrect.

The researchers revealed their findings in a paper, 'Planck evidence for a closed Universe and a possible crisis for cosmology', which has just been published in Nature Astronomy.