A recent Quanta Magazine article mentions the “flatness problem”. That remark caught my immediate attention and the 2025 Quanta article reminds me of my 2022 blog: The Universe is flat? Back then, my view was:
In my view, a flat Universe defies human logic. It’s like the (disproven) flat Earth hypothesis, and – to some extent – even feels like a new heliocentrism discussion.
My 14 June 2022 blog: The Universe is flat?
The 2025 Quanta article explains the “flatness problem” as follows:
“Another is that based on observations of ancient light, space-time appears to have no measurable curvature. This “flatness” requires the universe to maintain a very special density of matter and energy for billions and billions of years. This is the “flatness problem.” “
Source: Quanta Magazine article, 27 January 2025
Indeed, something appears flat (eg, oceans, roads, seas) when you cross it. Hence, segments of a ginormous Universe may appear flat. That is also the difference between focus versus perspective.
Moreover, the concepts of a Big Bang “explosion”, and a flat Universe are (very) contradictory: no explosion is “flat” unless its surroundings are capped (eg, prison). Still, many explosions are capped at half by our Earth’s ”floor”.
Wikipedia explains the Flatness problem as follows:
“The flatness problem (also known as the oldness problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. Such problems arise from the observation that some of the initial conditions of the universe appear to be fine-tuned to very ‘special’ values, and that small deviations from these values would have extreme effects on the appearance of the universe at the current time.”
Source: Flatness problem (Wiki)
Actually, there is one way to imagine a “flat” Universe: just imagine that all planets and suns are (round) bubbles in a deep “ocean” wave of aether. Still, even that notion triggers new dilemmas (eg, “ocean floor”, “sky”).
Flat Universe (2016) by Sheewton
artist, no lyrics, video, album+song
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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