How and when will the universe end? Or will it?

[ClubWhatever 12235]

Will there ever be a time when all the matter and energy which exists in the universe right now, or which ever has existed or ever will exist, no longer exists?  Will the universe exist at that time?  Can the universe exist without matter and energy?   Does an infinite expanse of space without any contents constitute a universe?  If so, will there be a time when space no longer exists?   How will these things come to be?  And how long will it take?

I watched a Nova episode where it was claimed that all of the approximately 200 billion trillion stars will burn out within some hundreds of trillions of years.  And that their matter could disappear into black holes, which would then themselves eventually cease to exist by emitting radiation.  So what happens to the radiation?   Is the fate of the universe to be a chaotic soup of radiation with no other matter or energy after hundreds of trillions of years?  Would this state then persist forever and mean that the universe has no end?
 

If the stars (and other matter) burn out and don’t get black holed but merely keep receding from each other over infinite time such that the universe’s density becomes infinitely small, does this also mean the universe has no end?

 

Asking for a friend

[TexEx15 17872]

 

[Pato del Muerto 53196]

[ChiTownDoc 21314]

when aggy wins a football national championship.  
 

/endthread 

[Surly Bevo 25612]

What if C A T really spelled…Dog?

[thunderlounge 8196]

28 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

What if C A T really spelled…Dog?

Exactly the first thing that came to my mind as well.

Second was I’m nowhere near high enough for this. 

[Laxtonto 12950]

If the Big Bang is “true” then the universe will never end, but instead always continue to expand…

[ClubWhatever 12235]

Sorry, could not post this Wikipedia snippet as plain text.  It posits that “things” could become severely jacked up at any instant but not terminated.   I rather like this one. 
 

Other serious threats to the universeEdit

There are also some possible events, such as the Big Slurp, which would seriously harm the universe, although the universe as a whole wouldn't be completely terminated as a result.

Big SlurpEdit

Main article: False vacuum decay

This theory posits that the universe currently exists in a false vacuum and that it could become a true vacuum at any moment.

In order to best understand the false vacuum collapse theory, one must first understand the Higgs field which permeates the universe. Much like an electromagnetic field, it varies in strength based upon its potential. A true vacuum exists so long as the universe exists in its lowest energy state, in which case the false vacuum theory is irrelevant. However, if the vacuum is not in its lowest energy state (a false vacuum), it could tunnel into a lower-energy state.^[25] This is called vacuum decay. This has the potential to fundamentally alter our universe; in more audacious scenarios even the various physical constants could have different values, severely affecting the foundations of matter, energy, and spacetime. It is also possible that all structures will be destroyed instantaneously, without any forewarning.^[26]

However, only a portion of the universe would be destroyed by the Big Slurp while most of the universe would still be unaffected because galaxies located further than 4,200 megaparsecs (13 billion light-years) away from each other are moving away from each other faster than the speed of light while the Big Slurp itself cannot expand faster than the speed of light.^[27]

[Elvis 3385]

[miguelito 11396]

Read this book and then come back and tell us how things end.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982103558/?coliid=I1FD9Y4D4WMAOB&colid=IVEJ5BNDNINV&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

 

I just listened to the author on a podcast, and added the book to my wish list.  Hopefully I get to it before the universe ends. 

[thunderlounge 8196]

How much should I smoke before reading that?

[ClubWhatever 12235]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:15 PM, miguelito said:

Read this book and then come back and tell us how things end.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982103558/?coliid=I1FD9Y4D4WMAOB&colid=IVEJ5BNDNINV&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

 

I just listened to the author on a podcast, and added the book to my wish list.  Hopefully I get to it before the universe ends. 

Ok I read it.  Loved it, by the way.  The most likely scenario, according to her, is a so called heat death, where the universe expands forever and all its matter sort of evaporates into a uniform but ultra low density energy field that is incapable of doing anything or interacting with anything.  Essentially, the universe “ends” by nothing happening ever again for all of eternity.   Not really an ending but might as well be.  

[Surly Bevo 25612]

On 7/25/2022 at 5:15 PM, miguelito said:

Read this book and then come back and tell us how things end.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982103558/?coliid=I1FD9Y4D4WMAOB&colid=IVEJ5BNDNINV&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

 

I just listened to the author on a podcast, and added the book to my wish list.  Hopefully I get to it before the universe ends. 

Pro tip if checking this one out at your local library

Edited August 22, 2022 by Surly Bevo

[HornsOverIthaca 2339]

Dang ol' neutron decay