Is the Universe Truly Infinite?

When you look up at night and see the uncountable stars scattered across the sky, it's easy to imagine the universe to be infinite. Or perhaps you see those lights as similar to the glow-in-the-dark stars on your bedroom ceiling, just pretty decorations to look at, like the high but dead-end ceiling. In any case, science has yet to determine whether the universe is infinite or finite.

Researchers, like everyone else, have theories. One group determined that the universe has an extremely flat floorplan after analyzing maps generated by observations made with the Baryon Oscillation Spectrographic Survey (BOSS), a super-powerful telescope in New Mexico. The survey was based on observations of "only" 1.2 million galaxies, which is a drop in the bucket of the universe, but it's a strong indication that the universe isn't a sphere.

Is that flatness, then, infinite? It's difficult to say. One widely held belief is that the Big Bang caused the universe to expand at a rate faster than the speed of light. People will never know if the universe has an edge because they can't see beyond the speed of light.

People will probably have to spend the rest of their lives wondering about the true size of the universe. It's a mystery, like so many others, full of enticing allure that draws their attention but never provides any real answers. Whether you're wondering how big the universe is or how life began on Earth, people's existence is filled with strange natural phenomena that people can't explain and may never understand. Those questions may trouble and haunt them for the rest of their lives, but they are also an important part of the human experience.