Figure 1

Power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Data from WMAP have extended the accuracy of the spectrum far beyond what was known from earlier measurements. This plot reflects the small differences in the temperature of the CMB across the sky. There are a series of peaks in the spectrum at small angular separations, but at large scales that structure disappears. Standard cosmological models cannot explain this, but Luminet and colleagues’ topological model for a finite universe can (image and text credit: Nature 425 566).

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