Universe slowly dying 'like an old person on the sofa'

[SoulMonster]

Most depressing thing I read today:

The Universe is slowly dying, thanks in part to a dramatic decrease in the formation of new stars.

There are many theories dictating exactly how the Universe will meet its end, but one thing has been agreed upon: its energy levels are plummeting. Just how rapidly that energy loss has been occurring, had been unclear.

But a massive study of more than 220,000 galaxies carried out by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia has found that the energy emanating from those systems is just half what it was two billion years ago.

"The Universe is fated to decline from here on in, like an old age that lasts forever. The Universe has basically plonked itself down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze," said ICRAR professor Simon Driver, who heads up the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project that made the discovery.

GAMA is a massive multi-wavelength survey conducted by honing seven telescopes -- including the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory -- on the mapped galaxies at 21 different wavelengths, from the far ultraviolet to the far infrared.

The team applied "spectral energy distribution analysis codes" to work out things like stellar mass, dust mass, opacity, dust temperature and star-formation rates. This was a vital part of working out energy decline, since stars emit light by converting mass into energy.

As Driver explained: "While most of the energy sloshing around was created in the aftermath of the Big Bang, additional energy is constantly being released by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together.

"This newly released energy is either absorbed by dust as it travels through the host galaxy, or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something such as another star, planet, or very occasionally a telescope mirror."

In a paper announcing the find, the GAMA team also listed "supernovae, winds, and other mass-loss processes leading to metal enrichment, dust formation, and the heating of the interstellar medium through shocks and other turbulent processes" as other ways stars are responsible for leaking energy into the Universe.

There is plenty of literature to suggest the birth rate of new stars peaked eight billions years ago -- but the latest findings demonstrate just how much that steep decline has impacted the overall energy output of the Universe.

The paper concludes: "This [energy] decline is significant despite the cosmic variance uncertainty, and in line with our understanding of the evolution in the cosmic star formation history, which shows a decline of a factor of approximately ×1.5 over this time-frame."

The work is described as the "largest multi-facility dataset ever assembled", but the team is not content. It wants to map the energy production of the Universe's entire history, and plans to do so by harnessing the power of the not-yet complete Square Kilometre Array (which you can read all about on WIRED here).

If the slow death of the Universe is all a bit much for you, forget what you've just read and click play on the video above -- a nice 3D fly-through of the mapped Universe that will leave you in a contented trance.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-08/11/slow-death-of-the-universe-proven

Bummer.

Edited August 12, 2015 by SoulMonster

[Johnny Drama]

Why would anyone care about something that's that ostensibly far off?

[Snake-Pit]

Most depressing thing I read today:

The Universe is slowly dying, thanks in part to a dramatic decrease in the formation of new stars.

There are many theories dictating exactly how the Universe will meet its end, but one thing has been agreed upon: its energy levels are plummeting. Just how rapidly that energy loss has been occurring, had been unclear.

But a massive study of more than 220,000 galaxies carried out by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia has found that the energy emanating from those systems is just half what it was two billion years ago.

"The Universe is fated to decline from here on in, like an old age that lasts forever. The Universe has basically plonked itself down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze," said ICRAR professor Simon Driver, who heads up the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project that made the discovery.

GAMA is a massive multi-wavelength survey conducted by honing seven telescopes -- including the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory -- on the mapped galaxies at 21 different wavelengths, from the far ultraviolet to the far infrared.

The team applied "spectral energy distribution analysis codes" to work out things like stellar mass, dust mass, opacity, dust temperature and star-formation rates. This was a vital part of working out energy decline, since stars emit light by converting mass into energy.

As Driver explained: "While most of the energy sloshing around was created in the aftermath of the Big Bang, additional energy is constantly being released by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together.

"This newly released energy is either absorbed by dust as it travels through the host galaxy, or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something such as another star, planet, or very occasionally a telescope mirror."

In a paper announcing the find, the GAMA team also listed "supernovae, winds, and other mass-loss processes leading to metal enrichment, dust formation, and the heating of the interstellar medium through shocks and other turbulent processes" as other ways stars are responsible for leaking energy into the Universe.

There is plenty of literature to suggest the birth rate of new stars peaked eight billions years ago -- but the latest findings demonstrate just how much that steep decline has impacted the overall energy output of the Universe.

The paper concludes: "This [energy] decline is significant despite the cosmic variance uncertainty, and in line with our understanding of the evolution in the cosmic star formation history, which shows a decline of a factor of approximately ×1.5 over this time-frame."

The work is described as the "largest multi-facility dataset ever assembled", but the team is not content. It wants to map the energy production of the Universe's entire history, and plans to do so by harnessing the power of the not-yet complete Square Kilometre Array (which you can read all about on WIRED here).

If the slow death of the Universe is all a bit much for you, forget what you've just read and click play on the video above -- a nice 3D fly-through of the mapped Universe that will leave you in a contented trance.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-08/11/slow-death-of-the-universe-proven

Bummer.

Question.

Why can't the universe's slow death be viewed like that of a newborn baby?; In the grand scheme of things, 'time-space', how old is the universe anyway? Everything's relative - even the universes 'puberty', when measured the current existence of existence against other universes that have also without catalyst became the catalyst with the cataclysmic explosion of the scene; Time-space. When we gather data like that, then we can be sure if the universe is an o.a.p dieing on the couch or even a newborn fresh from the womb...

[The Glow Inc.]

Who cares about 'the' Universe if any level of the Multiverse theory ( especially Everett's Many Worlds theory ) is real ?

[sweetness]

Humans and their CO2

[axlslash]

Why would anyone care about something that's that ostensibly far off?

Same reason as people are interested in ancient history. The attempt to construct a narrative from the little pieces of fact that we have and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is a fairly common pastime for humans.

[Val22]

I have news for you, we are all slowly dying.

I try not to worry about things I cannot do anything about. I have enough to think about in my personal life as we all do.

Honestly, man has messed up our planet so badly I think maybe it needs to end and possibly be redone better.

[Len Cnut]

Most depressing thing I read today:

The Universe is slowly dying, thanks in part to a dramatic decrease in the formation of new stars.

There are many theories dictating exactly how the Universe will meet its end, but one thing has been agreed upon: its energy levels are plummeting. Just how rapidly that energy loss has been occurring, had been unclear.

But a massive study of more than 220,000 galaxies carried out by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia has found that the energy emanating from those systems is just half what it was two billion years ago.

"The Universe is fated to decline from here on in, like an old age that lasts forever. The Universe has basically plonked itself down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze," said ICRAR professor Simon Driver, who heads up the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project that made the discovery.

GAMA is a massive multi-wavelength survey conducted by honing seven telescopes -- including the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory -- on the mapped galaxies at 21 different wavelengths, from the far ultraviolet to the far infrared.

The team applied "spectral energy distribution analysis codes" to work out things like stellar mass, dust mass, opacity, dust temperature and star-formation rates. This was a vital part of working out energy decline, since stars emit light by converting mass into energy.

As Driver explained: "While most of the energy sloshing around was created in the aftermath of the Big Bang, additional energy is constantly being released by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together.

"This newly released energy is either absorbed by dust as it travels through the host galaxy, or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something such as another star, planet, or very occasionally a telescope mirror."

In a paper announcing the find, the GAMA team also listed "supernovae, winds, and other mass-loss processes leading to metal enrichment, dust formation, and the heating of the interstellar medium through shocks and other turbulent processes" as other ways stars are responsible for leaking energy into the Universe.

There is plenty of literature to suggest the birth rate of new stars peaked eight billions years ago -- but the latest findings demonstrate just how much that steep decline has impacted the overall energy output of the Universe.

The paper concludes: "This [energy] decline is significant despite the cosmic variance uncertainty, and in line with our understanding of the evolution in the cosmic star formation history, which shows a decline of a factor of approximately ×1.5 over this time-frame."

The work is described as the "largest multi-facility dataset ever assembled", but the team is not content. It wants to map the energy production of the Universe's entire history, and plans to do so by harnessing the power of the not-yet complete Square Kilometre Array (which you can read all about on WIRED here).

If the slow death of the Universe is all a bit much for you, forget what you've just read and click play on the video above -- a nice 3D fly-through of the mapped Universe that will leave you in a contented trance.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-08/11/slow-death-of-the-universe-proven

Bummer.

Now you know why people believe in God

[SoulMonster]

Why would anyone care about something that's that ostensibly far off?

I guess I just have a large capacity for caring

I think cosmology is interesting and I like the idea that life can originate an infinite amount of times in an infinitely existing universe lke the one we have now. With a universe that is both expanding and slowly "dying" (at least the stars burn out leaving no such energy source for life to originate, instead energu will be evenly distrubuted over the whole of universe's vaste expanse), I guess it will all just fizzle out and then continue as nothing for infinity. That bums me out

[SoulMonster]

I have news for you, we are all slowly dying.

Yes, but we tend to be recirculated.

Most depressing thing I read today:

The Universe is slowly dying, thanks in part to a dramatic decrease in the formation of new stars.

There are many theories dictating exactly how the Universe will meet its end, but one thing has been agreed upon: its energy levels are plummeting. Just how rapidly that energy loss has been occurring, had been unclear.

But a massive study of more than 220,000 galaxies carried out by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia has found that the energy emanating from those systems is just half what it was two billion years ago.

"The Universe is fated to decline from here on in, like an old age that lasts forever. The Universe has basically plonked itself down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze," said ICRAR professor Simon Driver, who heads up the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project that made the discovery.

GAMA is a massive multi-wavelength survey conducted by honing seven telescopes -- including the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory -- on the mapped galaxies at 21 different wavelengths, from the far ultraviolet to the far infrared.

The team applied "spectral energy distribution analysis codes" to work out things like stellar mass, dust mass, opacity, dust temperature and star-formation rates. This was a vital part of working out energy decline, since stars emit light by converting mass into energy.

As Driver explained: "While most of the energy sloshing around was created in the aftermath of the Big Bang, additional energy is constantly being released by stars as they fuse elements like hydrogen and helium together.

"This newly released energy is either absorbed by dust as it travels through the host galaxy, or escapes into intergalactic space and travels until it hits something such as another star, planet, or very occasionally a telescope mirror."

In a paper announcing the find, the GAMA team also listed "supernovae, winds, and other mass-loss processes leading to metal enrichment, dust formation, and the heating of the interstellar medium through shocks and other turbulent processes" as other ways stars are responsible for leaking energy into the Universe.

There is plenty of literature to suggest the birth rate of new stars peaked eight billions years ago -- but the latest findings demonstrate just how much that steep decline has impacted the overall energy output of the Universe.

The paper concludes: "This [energy] decline is significant despite the cosmic variance uncertainty, and in line with our understanding of the evolution in the cosmic star formation history, which shows a decline of a factor of approximately ×1.5 over this time-frame."

The work is described as the "largest multi-facility dataset ever assembled", but the team is not content. It wants to map the energy production of the Universe's entire history, and plans to do so by harnessing the power of the not-yet complete Square Kilometre Array (which you can read all about on WIRED here).

If the slow death of the Universe is all a bit much for you, forget what you've just read and click play on the video above -- a nice 3D fly-through of the mapped Universe that will leave you in a contented trance.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-08/11/slow-death-of-the-universe-proven

Bummer.

Question.

Why can't the universe's slow death be viewed like that of a newborn baby?

Because a newborn baby brings the promise of a future, of new lives, of narration, of possibilities; while a universe that just expands and dies brings no such thing. All that lies in that future is just cold emptiness. Just imagine, as the universe expands and all stars die, as entrophy breaks up matter and distributes it evenly across cosmos, all that is is emptiness, cold, cold, emptiness and near-vacuum. If we should insist on comparing this bleak destiny with a new baby it would have to be a deadborn baby, but I still find the analogy flawed.

Edited August 12, 2015 by SoulMonster

[Len Cnut]

[bacardimayne]

such a putrid song

[Len Cnut]

How dare you!! What, a member of GnR make a shit song?!?

[Orsys]

What I have learned, especially in the oast 18 months, is Enjoy Today!

What else matters?

[bacardimayne]

How dare you!! What, a member of GnR make a shit song?!?

It honestly makes me mad that that song exists, and there's still someone in the world who is aware enough of it to bring it up on a forum. It's just so fucking bad.

[Johnny Drama]

Not so much a shit song per se as much as Iggy's lyrics are moronic. Well that and Slash and him shoulda made something like Search and Destroy so I could listen to it and hardcore dance on my staircase or something.

[Len Cnut]

Iggy is of the top 10 best songwriters in rock n roll history, i should say lyric writers more specifically, he's allowed to drop the ball once.

[wasted]

But you cant destroy energy it just moves from one form to another. Star dies all its energy transfers into something else. A lot of it's energy leaves as light. We are all made of light which left the sun or stars millions of years ago.

I mean they dont even know how an electron is made. They have a theory about gluons and quarks which arent actually found anywhere else. So they winging it. What if the energy in the universe is set or the universe is infinite.

It really depends of the theoretical structure. Some guys seem to like chains of events. If such and such then this. And fill in any gaps with made up stuff. Irrational!

If new energy is created all the time then how can it be running out categorically. Matbe when two neutrinos crash together an electron is created that has a charge hence energy. And that is happening all the time.

[SoulMonster]

I didn't mean the energy would disappear. just that it will be distributed evenly out across an ever-expanding universe, rather than in burning suns which can fuel life.

"And remember, everything's just black or burning sun".

[Len Cnut]

*walks past Soulie whistling 'All Things Bright & Beautiful'*

[SoulMonster]

All Christians will be dead long before they have to change that into "All Things Cold & Dark".

[Len Cnut]

Whatever makes you feel better Soulie

[Amir]

Well, from some supreme/fifth-dimensional being's point of view, the universe is already dead, currently in existence, and still not born all at the same time.

[DieselDaisy]

At least the universe will solve Souly's problem of population growth. Everyone will be dead so the problem will disappear!

[wasted]

I didn't mean the energy would disappear. just that it will be distributed evenly out across an ever-expanding universe, rather than in burning suns which can fuel life.

"And remember, everything's just black or burning sun".

I see what you mean but that's just one theory. Could just be infinite not expanding. To me that has always seemed a human idea. There was a beginning. Maybe it's just infinite and always been here and energy just transfers randomly. Sheep don't look random there dough do dey.

Conditions for our kind of life seem pretty specific. Its not like most stars have earths full of monkeys. Even our solar system just has one and only til the ice caps melt. Its like a fleeting nano second in time where we have conditions we can exist in.

When charge, energy, light is produced and we dont know how really it will remain a mystery. I mean the universe could expand to nothing but they reboot from nothing. Supposedly even a vacuum has something in it which could spark an electron.

Instinctively I think atoms or nukes are the key. Maybe 1 atom in a vacuum splits and boom this huge energy explodes and stars or candles burn out and Elton plays candle in the wind on the moon. But as soon as they out the vacuum reconfigures a gluon and it reboots to There's no Limit and somewhere in the infinite conditions are right for organic life and the Bush Dynasty suits up for another profitable war.

At least the universe will solve Souly's problem of population growth. Everyone will be dead so the problem will disappear!

I bet theres still one guy in front of me in the queue at KFC cant make up his mind what to get. Chicken god damn it chicken, get the chicken and move on with your life!