Scientists have found new evidence that may suggest the universe is shaped like a soccer ball and may be much smaller than previously thought.

The new finding was recently published in the Oct. 9 issue of the journal Nature. In the article, the researchers aimed to tackle the dispute of whether space is infinite or finite.

In the article, Dr. Jeffrey Weeks, one of the authors of the paper, writes, “Since antiquity, humans have wondered whether our universe is finite or infinite. Now, after more than two millennia of speculation, observational data might finally settle this ancient question.”

After analyzing observational data of the cosmic microwave background radiation from the Big Bang, the researchers agreed that the best explanation for the shape of the universe is similar to a 12-sided hall of mirrors in which there is only an illusion of infinity.

This 12-sided “soccer ball” shape is technically referred to as a dodecahedron.

The CMBR data was produced last February by a NASA satellite known as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe; it shows a “snapshot” of the universe at a young age of 400,000 years.

“The measurements taken by the scientists can be very roughly thought of as a snapshot of the fireball early in the history of our universe, which eventually cooled and became galaxies that we see today around us,” said University of Wisconsin assistant professor and cosmologist Daniel Chung.

This CMBR “snapshot” should show a specific number of identical pairs of circles, depending on the shape of the universe. The circles represent spots of hot and cold temperature regions, and a circle is formed by the intersection of the cosmic radiation with the side of the specific universe shape.

“Imagine that the universe is a very big balloon and you are an ant living on its surface. The balloon is expanding; that’s what the Big Bang is all about, so the distances between any two points in your ant world are increasing as time goes on,” UW professor and cosmologist Peter Timbie said.

If a balloon is small enough, as hypothesized in the soccer-ball theory, in principle, light from any one place would have time to trace all the way around the balloon among many different paths. So the ant could view the same star by looking in different directions, said Timbie.

Circles show up in correlation with the shape of the universe. In the case of the soccer-ball theory, the circles should show up as six pairs of circles, about 35 degrees in diameter.

“The prediction is that there should be a matching pair of spots in the CMBR snapshot,” Chung said.

This proposed soccer-ball theory contradicts other claims, however, and other publications disagree on whether the soccer-ball theory of the universe has been refuted.

So far, researchers have not agreed on whether these circles have shown up.

Cosmologists say there is no easy and definitive way to solve the controversy. The relevant data already exist, and figuring out the conundrum is solely a matter of finding the best methods to sift through the information.

The scientists hope to have an answer to the controversy by November.