A new research suggests that the universe will die out in billions of years after scientists found that galaxies analysed lost half of their energy in only 2 billion years. Furthermore, several factors might account for the death of the worlds: the universe might be assaulted by multiple deaths.
The universe has an ending, and it might soon be extinguished. A new study has shown that 200,000 galaxies have lost 50 % of their energy in only two billion years. All of creation might be reduced to nothingness in a matter of time.
“The universe is slowly dying,” said the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in a statement.
The new research is considered to be the most extensive one done on the subject. The energy output of a large amount of space that includes the galaxies was measured – the results are the most precise of all. It was seen under 21 wavelengths, from ultraviolet to the far infrared: a general decreasing trend was noted.
“We used as many space and ground-based telescopes we could get our hands on, to measure the energy output of over 200,000 galaxies across as broad a wavelength range as possible,” Simon Driver, the lead author, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia, who leads the large GAMA team, said in a statement.
Now, what is really happening that led the researchers to the conclusion that our universe will soon reach its final moments? Their findings showed that the rate at which new stars were being formed was decreasing by a factor of two – this happened over 2 billion years only. Normally, for stars to form, they need other stars to be destroyed in cataclysmic supernova explosions. However, the energy given off during these events has been spreading a lot to the extent that no new stars will be able to form in the long term. The scientists determined this possibility after they compared the energy output of older and newer galaxies. This heat death might be our death sentence.
“Essentially the universe is curling up on the sofa and become an old universe,” Jochen Liske from the University of Hamburg, who was involved in the research, said in a statement to IFLScience. “The universe is getting darker and darker. It is becoming a very cold and dark place.”
Another theory relating to the end of the universe dictates that the latter will expand increasingly causing its contents to be so spread out, thereby making interactions impossible. Liske described the situation in the following words: “the universe is dying multiple deaths.”
What will happen first though: no new star formation or the deadly acceleration of the universe?
“It depends on how big the acceleration of the universe is,” said Liske. “That’s a question we haven’t quite answered. We don’t know what causes the accelerating expansion yet.”
The universe running out of heat might happen in billions of years. Is this how humans will die out? Actually, we could go extinct prior to that: our planet might be consumed by the sun well before.