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No, and finding it is one of the biggest goals of cosmology, the science that studies the Universe. “Observations suggest that it is infinite, but the data are not completely reliable”, says astronomer Roberto Boczko, from USP. Based on the Theory of Relativity, scientists have devised a formula to study the limits of the Cosmos.
After millions of crazy calculations, the conclusion was this: if the density of the Universe is less than 0.00188 g/cm3, it is infinite. As it is not possible to measure (nor weigh) the entire Universe, astronomers calculated the density of known parts and assumed it as a representation of all space.
As the values reached were up to five times smaller than the 0.00188 g/cm3, the initial conclusion is that the Cosmos is infinite. But the study is still in its infancy. “In the parts of space we study, there may be things we can’t measure, like black holes. And some theories estimate that we know only 5% of the total”, says Boczko.
The discovery of the remaining 95% could radically change current data and point to a finite Universe. If that happens, another question arises: what comes after the Universe?