{"id":787187,"date":"2024-08-13T03:04:54","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T08:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=787187"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:04:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T08:04:54","slug":"big-rip-heat-death-and-vacuum-decay-short-wave-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=787187","title":{"rendered":"Big Rip, Heat Death and Vacuum Decay : Short Wave : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n This composite image shows the Cartwheel Galaxy, located about 500 million light-years away. In the heat death scenario, the universe would expand so far that the light of one galaxy would be unable to reach its neighbor. \n <\/p>\n
This composite image shows the Cartwheel Galaxy, located about 500 million light-years away. In the heat death scenario, the universe would expand so far that the light of one galaxy would be unable to reach its neighbor.<\/p>\n
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NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI<\/p>\n
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Will it be a slow fade? A big rip? An abrupt disintegration?<\/p>\n
We don’t know for sure how the universe will end. But thanks to theoretical astrophysicists like Katie Mack, we can speculate.<\/p>\n
That speculation requires theorizing about dark energy, the mysterious force that’s driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. What happens at the end of that expansion? Scientists say it could eventually lead to heat death: A cold, dark cosmos populated by isolated galaxies, fading stars \u2014 and even the evaporation of black holes. <\/p>\n
That’s just one potential option. <\/p>\n
Other scientists theorize that the universe could rip itself apart … or that a quantum fluctuation could destroy us all in a matter of seconds. <\/p>\n
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