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Far Future Will See No Evidence of Universe's Origin

Dr. Eggman writes "According to an article on Ars Technica and its accompanying General Relativity and Gravitation journal article 'The Return of a Static Universe and the End of Cosmology', in the far future of the universe all evidence of the origin of the universe will be gone. Intelligences alive 100-billion-years from now will observe a universe that appears much the way our early 1900s view of the universe was: Static, had always been there, and consisted of little more than our own galaxy and a islands of matter. 'The cosmic microwave background, which has provided our most detailed understanding of the Big Bang, will also be gone. Its wavelength will have been shifted to a full meter, and its intensity will drop by 12 orders of magnitude. Even before then, however, the frequency will reach that of the interstellar plasma and be buried in the noise--the stuff of the universe itself will mask the evidence of its origin. Other evidence for the Big Bang comes from the amount of deuterium and helium isotopes in the universe.'"

5 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. But even worse by catbutt · · Score: 5, Funny

    by then, we'll be dead, which seems like the bigger problem.

  2. Re:I'm sure by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Funny

    "that this article will be relevant in 100 billion years."

    Nah, it'll have experienced the "dupe death" as its reposted countless times, each time increasing its entrophy, losing a few letters here, having a few more arranged there ..

    Today:

    The cosmic microwave background, which has provided our most detailed understanding of the Big Bang, will also be gone. Its wavelength will have been shifted to a full meter, and its intensity will drop by 12 orders of magnitude. Even before then, however, the frequency will reach that of the interstellar plasma and be buried in the noise--the stuff of the universe itself will mask the evidence of its origin. Other evidence for the Big Bang comes from the amount of deuterium and helium isotopes in the universe.'"
    Today + n dupes:

    detailed understanding will also be gone.
    a full meter,
    the frequency will reach that of the interstellar plasma and be buried in
    the noise--the stuff of the universe itself
    evidence for the Big Bang comes from the isotopes in the universe.'"

    Today + n * x dupes:

    le t
    the r e
    b e
    the Big Bang
    !

    Time zero

    *

    Time zero +1

    \ | /
    -- * --
    / | \

    Time zero + z

    The cosmic microwave background, which has provided our most detailed understanding of the Big Bang, will also be gone. Its wavelength will have been shifted to a full meter, and its intensity will drop by 12 orders of magnitude. Even before then, however, the frequency will reach that of the interstellar plasma and be buried in the noise--the stuff of the universe itself will mask the evidence of its origin. Other evidence for the Big Bang comes from the amount of deuterium and helium isotopes in the universe.'"

    Because we all know, what goes around, comes around.

  3. Copyright? by geoff+lane · · Score: 5, Funny
    I found this hidden within the value of Pi expressed in base 11...

    Copyright: Year Dot God. All rights reserved.

    This universe represents copyrighted material and may only be reproduced in whole for personal or classroom use. It may not be edited, altered, or otherwise modified, except with the express permission of God.

  4. Y100B Compliant by Ryunosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can I tell if my computer is Y100B compliant? I want to be able to read about this on slashdot in 100B years

  5. Peak hydrogen by benhocking · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where I'm getting is that the universe has a finite budget of hydrogen and keeps using it fast. (Well, "fast" by cosmic scales.) And then some of it gets buried in black holes and the like too. So planning to have main sequence stars in 100 billion years, is sorta like planning to still be using the oil in the middle east by then: chances are it will have run horribly thin, long time before that.
    Bah, you Alpha Centaurians and your "peak hydrogen" alarmism! But seriously, we're not burning through Hydrogen fast even by cosmic scales. The universe still has 75% of its original hydrogen left. Presumably, the rate at which we'll use it will decrease as we use it up. However, you have a valid point that by 100 billion years (~8x the current age), there's a good chance that the 75% figure might be more like 7.5%. (I'm completely making up that last figure.)
    --
    Ben Hocking
    Need a professional organizer?