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:Facts not in evidence

[Rockoon]

No, there's a large amount of energy inside, but it's all in the form of a high temperature, and there's no colder heat reservoir available to anyone down there that would try to extract useful work from it. (Since nothing outside the singularity is reachable once you're there.)

There you go with that singularity stuff. Did you even read what I wrote?

There is no rule that black holes must contain singularities. The rule is the exact opposite, that singularities must be contained in black holes. Feel free to try to find a reference to your version of it, and you wont find one. Its just not part of any theory.

This is a common mistake made by laymen such as yourself. I realize that you have probably been schooled in some physics, but you have been mislead somewhere along the way because nobody felt it was important enough to stress this very basic fact to you.

Please use your skills to calculate the density of a black hole the size of the observable universe (hint: the density is nearly that of the vacuum of space), and then look up the actual estimated density of the universe. Disturbingly close, isn't it? Within an order of magnitude, right? We simply cannot rule out the possibility that you are in a black hole right now, which blows your assumptions and thus conclusions right out of the water.