Universe Closer To Heat Death Than Once Thought

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.

Comments

Re:As far as we need to go?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

And where is it that we're going?

Oblivion.

Re:Entropy increasing, Slashdot-style

[ryanvm]

INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER

[Grrr. Have to thwart the anti-caps filter. Thx Slashdot - Destroyer of Jokes.]

Re:Entropy increasing, Slashdot-style

[jbezorg]

I'm gonna cry if entropy ever becomes "the new CO2".

Well, we were going to stage a protest to have the government stop the eventual heat death of the universe, but then we realized the energy spent in actually carrying through with the protest and the bureaucracy needed to legislate it would hasten the eventual heat death of the universe by a factor of 100.