Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Only 10-20 Billion Years To Go

Posted by timothy on from the overdue-books dept.

cinorhc writes "An article at Space Flight Now reports on a study of some Stanford researchers that say the universe will collapse in on itself in a mere 10-20 billion years, resulting in "the Big Crunch". That puts us in the middle of the uni's life cycle. The generally accepted theory as of now is the universe will expand forever, leaving isolated galaxies all alone in a nearly infinite sea of darkness. If these guys are right, we should see galaxies blue shift any day now. I personally prefer a universe that will collapse in on itself and then re-Big Bang so to speak, circle of life on a grand scale."

8 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. If we are around in that time... by jpt.d · · Score: 3, Funny

    I should hope we have the technology to escape any problem that might cause us. Then we can come back in another billion and mess around with the younger races :-)

    --
    What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock Now search for that bug slave!
    1. Re:If we are around in that time... by foobar104 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Does anyone know the event horizon for a big bang?

      Zero. Well, infinity. Okay, both.

  2. So does this mean... by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 4, Funny

    that eventually all computers will only need 640K of ram?

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  3. Oh my God! Only 10 million years? by fm6 · · Score: 3, Funny
    What's the point of anything if the universe is going to end so soon?

    Oh wait! You said 10 billion years! Never mind!

  4. right... by tps12 · · Score: 3, Funny

    We can't predict the weather tomorrow afternoon, but we know what's going to happen in 20 billion years. Tell me another one.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  5. Just another in a series by photon317 · · Score: 3, Insightful


    In a few years a different theory will emerge, ad infinitum. Astrophysics is a black art at this stage. It's important that we pursue it, but we all know that the "current theories" are just working models to help us along, they're almost always disproved and new models are born. It will be along time before we settle into a model that we can believe with some degree of certainty.

    --
    11*43+456^2
  6. Whatever...... by jeramybsmith · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Hawking and others have allowed for the presence of God in cosmology. Why is it that some people have a problem reconciling cosmology with their God? Did God create the universe with a big bang? Perhaps.... Why don't we observe the universe together and see instead of digging in and rejecting these ideas outright.

    I just don't understand people who say that they believe in a God who created the universe but close their ears against any attempt to see how he did so.

    --
    Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
  7. The Universe by extrasolar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is like a zit on God's nose.

    See? You can unify Creationism and Big Bang.