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Universe Closer To Heat Death Than Once Thought

Posted by Soulskill on from the we're-doomed dept.

TapeCutter writes "In a paper soon to be published (PDF) in the Astrophysical Journal, Australian researchers have estimated the entropy of the universe is about 30 times higher than previous estimates. According to their research, super-massive black holes 'are the largest contributor to the entropy of the observable universe, contributing at least an order of magnitude more entropy than previously estimated.' For those of us who like their science in the form of a car analogy, Dr. Lineweaver compared their results to a car's gas tank. He states, 'It's a bit like looking at your gas gauge and saying "I thought I had half a gas tank, but I only have a quarter of a tank."'" Fortunately, that quarter of a tank will still get us as far as we need to go and then some.

26 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. OMG!!! by click2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So as well as peak oil now we have to worry about peak universe?

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    1. Re:OMG!!! by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...don't worry, the free market will save the universe (by making it so damned expensive to live here that corporations will arise and find us other universes to exploit, naturally...)

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:OMG!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Forget global warming. Your SUV is causing universal warming!

    3. Re:OMG!!! by Drethon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Peak universe happened at the big bang, its all been down hill from there... reminds me of a marriage.

    4. Re:OMG!!! by Drethon · · Score: 3, Funny

      No one has talked to you about this yet?

      No you get more just like the universe but much smaller. Think super novas vs the big bang and how they get less frequent over time...

    5. Re:OMG!!! by Tsar · · Score: 3, Funny

      So as well as peak oil now we have to worry about peak universe?

      Worrying isn't enough--it's time to ACT!
      Assuming, of course, that this is anthropogenic entropy...

    6. Re:OMG!!! by AshtangiMan · · Score: 2, Funny

      No. It's anthropomorphic entropy. And it's angry . . .

  2. Entropy increasing, Slashdot-style by Angst+Badger · · Score: 4, Funny

    So how much entropy does the fact that this story is a duplicate add to the universe?

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  3. Does it bother anyone else by plover · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does it bother anyone else that a guy named "Lineweaver" is making a car analogy that doesn't involve alcohol?

    --
    John
  4. "Fortunately"?! by brian0918 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fortunately, that quarter of a tank will still get us as far as we need to go and then some.

    Yes, fortunately for us, maybe... but what about our children's children's children's ... (* 10^80) children? Won't someone please think of them?!?!

  5. Oh noes! by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You mean we may never make it to:

    - seeing a computer which can run Crysis?
    - Duke Nukem: Forever release date?
    - Hurd 1.0?
    - kdawson leaving a story alone and publishing something accurate?

    :-O

    --
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    1. Re:Oh noes! by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Funny

      You know, not everything in science needs to or should be translated into every day terms.

      I'm not clear on what you mean by this... can you please explain it in terms of a car analogy?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    2. Re:Oh noes! by fred+fleenblat · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's like when you have a car, but the car is only useful for driving around in, not so much for explaining to people how you got there, and why you're naked and covered in potato peels, and why there are 17 empty cans of beer on the passenger seat, and why an alien baby is breaking out through your stomach and ellen riply is too busy fighting off the terminator from the future so she can't help you, but "new spock" is speaking in some weird irish accent for no apparent reason. We've all been there.

  6. Re:As far as we need to go? by joss · · Score: 4, Funny

    to the grave

    --
    http://rareformnewmedia.com/
  7. The Universe is an infinite loop by us7892 · · Score: 1, Funny

    So the Universe only has 100 trillion more years before it is all sucked into a massive uber black hole. And then, one big void. And then, the next big bang, and it all starts over again. We're actually on iteration number 42 of an infinite loop.

    1. Re:The Universe is an infinite loop by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 3, Funny

      So on the previous iteration, a man named, coincidentally "Douglas Adams", in a language totally unrelated to but oddly identical to English, wrote a series of books where he concluded that the answer to life, the universe and everything was 41?

  8. Re:As far as we need to go? by ThePlague · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, of course.

  9. Re:bah by Potor · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've for one have never forgiven them for Hitler.

  10. Re:30x higher than whose estimate? by JohnHegarty · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, you now have about 3 weeks.

    Please get your affairs in order , and top up your central heating tank.

    --
    Cruise TT
  11. Re:no problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "(no red dwarf has ever died."

    How about the BBC comedy series with Craig Charles and Chris Barrie?

  12. Deep Space 9 by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 2, Funny

    Jack: "The fact is that the universe is going to stop expanding and it is going to collapse in on itself. We've got to do something before it's too late!"

    Patrick: "How much time do we have left?"

    Jack: "Sixty trillion years, seventy at the most."

    Patrick: "Oh, no."

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
  13. Re:As far as we need to go? by Rhaban · · Score: 2, Funny

    the apple tablet announcement tomorrow.

  14. Re:two possible futures now cut shorter.... by dylan_- · · Score: 3, Funny

    If protons don't decay as we suspect, then universe slowly tunnels to iron-56, (light nuclei via fusion and heavier via fission) in about 10^1500 years, which coalesce into black holes or neutron stars in about 10^10^76 years (yup, double exponent).

    10^640 years should be enough for anyone.

    --
    Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
  15. Re:two possible futures now cut shorter.... by mdwstmusik · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only 22 billion years left? Nobody panic! ...We still have time to exit the Universe in a "disorderly" manner.

    --
    "Oh, what sad times these are when passing ruffians can say 'ni' to helpless old ladies."
  16. As my professor said... by Uranium-238 · · Score: 2, Funny

    we're all going to end up as cosmic farts.

  17. No Problem by sunspot42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    We'll just have the Logopolitans open a charged vacuum emboitment to E-Space. Entropy problem solved!