I am reading Stephen Hawking's book - A Brief History of Time. I haven't studied cosmology and the related sciences. Nevertheless, I am interested to know few things regarding the extract taken from his book:
On the observational side, by far the most important development has been the measurement of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation by COBE (the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite) and other collaborations. These fluctuations are the finger-prints of creation, tiny initial irregularities in the otherwise smooth and uniform early universe that later grew into galaxies, stars, and all the structures we see around us. Their form agrees with the predictions of the proposal that the universe has no boundaries or edges in the imaginary time direction; but further observations will be necessary to distinguish this proposal from other possible explanations for the fluctuations in the background. However, within a few years we should know whether we can believe that we live in a universe that is completely self-contained and without beginning or end.
One of the proposals mentioned is that the universe has no boundaries or edges in the imaginary time direction. How far as of now is this true? Do we live in open space with no boundaries?
Secondly, I want to know whether the universe in which I am living is enclosed or not?
What does the author mean when he says that
we live in a universe that is completely self-contained and without beginning or end.
Please clarify by putting forward some analogies.
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