If I went around and claimed that I was an emperor just because some moistened tart lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away.

Before I get started I'd like to make a few points that I want you to have.

First, Einstein demonstrated mathematically that electromagnetic radiation (light, radio waves, etc) behaves as a particle in that these particles are affected by gravity. Because particles of light have such a small mass, they are only affected by large masses, and even then, only minutely. To give you an idea that this works, just take a look at a lunar eclipse of the sun. The halloing that occurs is not because the moon doesn't cover up the entire sun, it's because some of the light that passes very close to the moon gets redirected inward a bit, and we see this list as a halo that surrounds the moon.

Second, I'd like to bring to your attention what an object looks like to you while it is underwater. We all know that looking at an object underwater can distort our perception of where the object actually is. I believe that gravity can do the same thing to what we see, it just takes a little bigger swimming pool.

Next, I'd like to say that I think space itself is infinite, I do not believe however that our universe is infinite. By universe I mean, a collection of all the masses of stars planets and other things worth considering. By universe I'm not referring to a void.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, on with the actual theory itself. I believe that the universe is in the shape of a torroid.

As our scientists explore the vast of our universe, using both optical and radio telescopes to do so, they have yet to find any evidence that our universe ever ends. And this whole place is filled with billions and billions of stars that seem to continue on forever. I believe that there are a very finite number of stars. And that what we perceive may be a kind of "loop". The universe is a rather densely packed torroid. Light emitted by the stars curves along the surface of the torroid, looping infinitely as it goes around and around. And here on earth we perceive this repeated light that reaches us, as though it had come in a straight line from it's source, and we acknowledge it as another star. In this manner, all energy and matter is contained in a closed system where it is impossible to get outside, because it would require travelling faster than the speed of light (as light itself cannot escape).

If one were to travel out into the universe, they could very easily travel forever in what the thought was a straight line, wen in fact the universal gravity, as I will call it, will pull them into a torroidal orbit that will continue forever.

As far as calculations that the universe is expanding based on the relative movement of stars, that's because we are located near the edge of the major radius of the torroid (as in, on the outer side of the ring). As everything moves around the torroid it would have to be accelerating inward, and thus, expanding away from us.

I think that our scientists that are looking out for alien radio signals are going to be in for the biggest surprise. When the vary signals that we send out make their way around the universe (this could take thousands of years, so who knows if we will be around to receive them) they will land in the very satellites that transmitted them. We will most likely think someone was looking for us as well. But by then I'm hoping we'll have figured out some better way to travel, and we'll be better able to explore the little torroid we call home.