Universe may be proven flat 宇宙是平的

The Boomerang experiment balloon inflating just before launch

氣球發射升空前在充氣

A high-flying balloon which soared over Antarctica may have answered one of cosmology's greatest questions by revealing that the universe may be "flat".

To astronomers, flat means that the usual rules of geometry are observed - light travels in straight lines, not curves. But since Albert Einstein proposed that the universe was "curved", the debate has been open.

Scientific opinion has moved towards a flat universe and the latest data confirm this with greater certainty than ever before.

Another result of the study is the prediction that the universe will eventually stop expanding from the Big Bang, but will not collapse into a "Big Crunch".

一只在南極洲升空的高空氣球解答了宇宙學的一個最大問題：我們的宇宙是“平的”。

對于天文學家來說，平面的宇宙意味著幾何學的一般原理將被遵守，光在直線中運行，而不是曲線。但自從愛因斯坦提出宇宙是彎曲的之后，科學界就展開了大爭論。

科學的觀點逐漸轉向平面宇宙的理論，而最新的數據則越發的證明了這一點。

研究結果也提出了另一項假設，宇宙在大爆炸后最終會停止膨脹，而不會塌陷為一個大黑洞。