14 DAY TRIAL // The general view is that our universe came into being around 14 billion years ago in the aftermath of the Big Bang, described by scientists as a sudden and rapid expansion of matter then in a state of extremely high density and temperature.
It's also said that, since the Big Bang, the cosmos has been forever expanding. Well, as it turns out, it's also slowly fading away.
Thus, having studied well over 200,000 galaxies and the energy output of the portion of space they occupy, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is dying. True, it's all happening at a leisurely pace, but it's happening alright.
Scientists aren't quite sure how long it will be before it's lights out for eternity, but they have no doubts the cosmos is nearing its end.
“The universe will decline from here on in, sliding gently into old age. The universe has basically sat down on the sofa, pulled up a blanket and is about to nod off for an eternal doze,” ICRAR researcher Simon Driver said in an interview.
Checking the universe's vitals
As mentioned, this investigation into the imminence of the universe's demise came down to monitoring more than 200,000 galaxies.
The team focused on recording and documenting wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the far infrared and discovered that, these days, the universe is producing about 50% less energy than it did around 2 billion years ago.
Newly formed galaxies are producing less energy than their forefathers. Besides, old stars are vanishing faster than new ones are forming.
What this means is that the cosmos is gradually decaying and will eventually fade away. On the bright side, scientists estimate it will be a few trillion years until the last star dies, so we have nothing to worry about. At least not for now.
Scientists first proposed that the universe is dying all around us back in the 1990s. However, it was this investigation mapping the energy output of the nearby cosmos that proved this is happening across all wavelengths.
