Posted on 08/11/2015 2:00:06 PM PDT by Purdue77
The Los Angeles Times (8/10, Khan) reports that an international study led by Simon Driver of the University of Western Australia and presented at the International Astronomical Union meeting on Monday found that the amount of light the 200,000 galaxies are outputting is half of what they did two billion years ago, meaning the universe is dying. The article notes that seven telescopes were used in the study, including NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft. Driver said that the conclusion is consistent with each of the three indicators measured. However, the universe should continue to exist far into the foreseeable future.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Anthropogenic Galactic Warming
Hurry, let’s spend trillions on saving the universe. After all, this is caused by man and we have a responsibility to generations a billion years from now.
I’d like a triple shot of enthalpy, please!
....and I feel fine.
New IRS Form:
Check here if you wish to donate $1 to the Save The Universe Fund.
If it’s “dying “ then it had a beginning, and it was caused by a force outside of it.
Is he talking about the state of maximum entropy, or the “heat death” of the universe? that’s old news. Real old news. If true, then it’s at an extremely distant date that can have no effect on the present time. In other words, useless article.
Looking at such distant galaxies, they found that, about 2 billion years ago, the universe was producing roughly twice as much as it is today.
We have to take it from somewhere, but it will get you going!
A great parody of Desiderata
It needs the soundtrack and the original narrator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFLvhKv-Lbo
It's not even the funniest, or second funniest track on the album [neither of which can be played on FR.]
Wheres Harold- “the world will end in..Place Date Here- Camping..... when we need him??
Well Meatloaf’s prayers have been answered.
I thought the universe was expanding. At least it was a year ago when I watched a t.v. program on PBS.
>>>or the ‘heat death’ of the universe
To expand on that a bit...
“the term ‘heat death’ doesnt refer to actual heat... Its a throwback to the 19th century vocabulary of thermodynamics. All physical systems tend towards a state of equilibrium, in which there is no net flow of energy.
For instance, gas molecules are confined by the walls of their container, but when the gas is released, the molecules disperse outward, until they are evenly spread out into the larger space.
If the second law were extrapolated to its logical conclusion, the entire universe would eventually reach a similar state of thermal equilibrium, with a uniform temperature throughout its vast expanse. Change would stop, and therefore time as we know it would cease. ...”
http://news.discovery.com/space/heat-death.htm
Extrapolation. View light from a galaxy 10 billion light-years away (estimate intensity), view light from galaxies 1 billion light-years away, extrapolate to the present.
Everything we perceive is "in the past."
George Bush’s fault.
We don't know the ultimate fate of the Universe, but Asimov came up with an idea:
The story deals with the development of universe-scale computers called Multivacs and their relationships with humanity through the courses of seven historic settings, beginning in 2061. In each of the first six scenes a different character presents the computer with the same question; namely, how the threat to human existence posed by the heat death of the universe can be averted. The question was: "How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?" This is equivalent to asking: "Can the workings of the second law of thermodynamics (used in the story as the increase of the entropy of the universe) be reversed?" Multivac's only response after much "thinking" is: "INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER."The story jumps forward in time into later eras of human and scientific development. In each of these eras someone decides to ask the ultimate "last question" regarding the reversal and decrease of entropy. Each time, in each new era, Multivac's descendant is asked this question, and finds itself unable to solve the problem. Each time all it can answer is an (increasingly sophisticated, linguistically): "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
In the last scene, the god-like descendant of humanity (the unified mental process of over a trillion, trillion, trillion humans that have spread throughout the universe) watches the stars flicker out, one by one, as matter and energy ends, and with it, space and time. Humanity asks AC, Multivac's ultimate descendant, which exists in hyperspace beyond the bounds of gravity or time, the entropy question one last time, before the last of humanity merges with AC and disappears. AC is still unable to answer, but continues to ponder the question even after space and time cease to exist. Eventually AC discovers the answer, but has nobody to report it to; the universe is already dead. It therefore decides to answer by demonstration. The story ends with AC's pronouncement,
And AC said: "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" And there was light-- Closing line, "The Last Question"[7]
We are made up of protons, electrons, neutrons, photons,
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don’t forget morons.
"Yes, the calculations do seem to indicate the Universe will soon be coming to an end.
I give in 6 months tops."
Ironic that even the dumbest of morons are comprised of such complex, still largely mysterious material.
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