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A Snapshot of the Universe 3 Trillion Years From Now

Posted by Zonk on from the really-gives-you-a-sense-of-perspective dept.

ultracool wrote with a link to a Science Daily article that requires that you think long term. Really long term. Case Western Reserve University physicists are theorizing that trillions of years from now the universe will become 'static'. Essentially, the information that we use to gauge our Galaxy's position in the universe will have moved beyond the 'visible horizon. "What remains will be 'an island universe' made from the Milky Way and its nearby galactic Local Group neighbors in an overwhelmingly dark void ... The researchers followed up that discussion with one tracking early elements like helium and deuterium produced in the Big Bang. They predict systems that allow us to detect primordial deuterium will be dispersed throughout the universe to become undetectable, while helium in concentrations of approximately 25 percent at the Big Bang will become indiscernible as stars will produce far more helium in the course of their lives to cloud the origins of the early universe."

11 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Re:uhh by someone1234 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Contrary to the weather predictions, no one will complain about it.

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  2. Ok that's it. by Ravear · · Score: 5, Funny

    First idiot to mention a certain game with a protracted development schedule gets shot.

  3. who cares? by swell · · Score: 2, Funny


    Jackson: Of course our sun will expire long before then, in about 3 billion years.
    Mavis: [jumping from chair in panic] What's that you say?
    Jackson: [repeats]
    Mavis: [gradually relaxing] Oh, I thought you said 3 MILLION years, whew!

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  4. Re:We Are Gods by gaderael · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not content with the fact we will die in less than ten billionths of the time interval discussed in this story, some of us still obsess with thinking we know the answers to the universe. But why do they obsess? Everyone knows the answer to the universe is '42'.
    --
    Anyone got a light for my sig?
  5. If it didn't happen by then... by Statecraftsman · · Score: 2, Funny

    All this stuff about microwaves and dark matter is cool but what I want to know is, will Linux have taken over the desktop?

  6. Engage! by Todamont · · Score: 1, Funny

    What remains will be 'an island universe' made from the Milky Way and its nearby galactic Local Group neighbors in an overwhelmingly dark void...

    yes, because crossing intergalactic space is so easy nowadays...

    --
    Kharma is like a boomerang. Mine is broken.
  7. Putting recent articles into perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    And now, a quick recap of four recent articles on Slashdot:

    1. Movies: Celebrate 25 years of TRON!
    2. Games: Players of EVE Online cry foul over preferential treatment by admins towards some players.
    3. TV: Fans of the TV show "Jericho" mail over nine tons of nuts to CBS in a desperate attempt to keep the show on the air.
    4. Science: In three billion years, the universe will just stop, everything you know and love will be no more, and here's a glimpse of the nothing it'll be.


    Hooray perspective! Now let's go out there and have some fun!
  8. Oh well... by rizole · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Just enough time for another bath then...

  9. Right Now, Dammit! by pipingguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    At what point do we stop worrying and just accept that eventually everyone and everything that lives, dies?

    At Slashdot, individuals that probably are new to having their own pubes are seen agonizing about whether the human existence will be around in 500 years. These usually are the types who demand this sort of thing:

    1) stop global climate change right fucking now, or else (no matter what it takes) before we all die
    2) let's get off this crappy rock and populate new planets before we all die

    Both are absurd notions, but apparently crying wolf again and again works when manipulating hungry-for-hype mass media.

    It *is* important to be forward-looking and responsible about the future but those who make environmentalism into a sort of religious crusade are not doing themselves nor their descendants (assuming they ever bother to have any, given the catastrophe now! mentality) any favours.

  10. Re:What about now? by nih · · Score: 3, Funny

    God put the Cosmic Microwave Background there to test our faith!

    --
    I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life :(
  11. Mouse by innot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, at last the Mouse will finally become public domain at about that time.
    I'm looking forward to get my free copy of Steamboat Willie..........

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    XX ITE AD X