Scientists Take Most Accurate Reading Yet of Universe's Cooling

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Scientists Take Most Accurate Reading Yet of Universe's Cooling

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @12:15PM from the you-feel-a-little-warm dept.

angry tapir writes "An international team of astronomers has used the CSIRO-run Australia Telescope Compact Array to measure the cooling of the universe since the Big Bang. According to the CSIRO, it is the most accurate reading yet of how hot the universe used to be. When the universe was half its current age its temperature was -267.92 degrees Celsius (5.08 Kelvin), the team found, which is warmer than today's universe (-270.27 degrees Celsius)."

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Reaffirms my theory by chris.evans · 2013-01-23 12:22 · Score: 1

That the universe will not end in a fire ball, but a deep freeze.
1. Re:Reaffirms my theory by CurunirAran · 2013-01-23 13:07 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, heat death is most probably how the world will end, unless some radical new insight is thought up.
2. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Frontier+Owner · 2013-01-23 13:11 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm doing my part to contribute to the heat death of the universe. Just be patient.
3. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Brad1138 · 2013-01-23 13:39 · Score: 1
  
  in 5 billion years, it will be sad to see the Earth engulfed in a red giant, but we willprobably be able to move the Earth to the appropriate distance by then.
  
  --
  If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
4. Re:Reaffirms my theory by nucleofide · 2013-01-23 13:44 · Score: 1
  
  We can hope the world will end in an infinity extrapolated heat death. But,
5. Re:Reaffirms my theory by TapeCutter · 2013-01-23 15:23 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  it will be sad to see the Earth engulfed in a red giant
  Don't worry, although that fate is inevitable there's no chance you will be there to see it. Besides, it's only 0.5 billion years until the oceans evaporate and Earth resembles Venus.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
6. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Nocturnal+Deviant · 2013-01-23 15:24 · Score: 1
  
  I'd rather fantasize than permanently not be able to breathe floating around in a vacuum with no other life forms for a millennia/ever.
  
  --
  -Noc
7. Re:Reaffirms my theory by TapeCutter · 2013-01-23 15:25 · Score: 1
  
  Actually we can (to the same degree of certainty that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow).
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
8. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 15:27 · Score: 1
  
  "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost
  Some say the world will end in fire,
  Some say in ice.
  From what I've tasted of desire
  I hold with those who favor fire.
  But if it had to perish twice,
  I think I know enough of hate
  To say that for destruction ice
  Is also great
  And would suffice.
9. Re:Reaffirms my theory by CurunirAran · 2013-01-23 15:32 · Score: 1
  
  Heat Death is where the Universe expands so much that heat 'dies', i.e., there is not enough thermodynamic free energy (U) left when you consider the Universe as a closed system.
  
  This implies that there is not enough energy available to perform energy consuming processes.
10. Re:Reaffirms my theory by FatdogHaiku · 2013-01-23 15:40 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Or in 6 billion years a great white hot flash will pass through all the known universe...
  Galactic Menopause?
  
  --
  You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
11. Re:Reaffirms my theory by bejiitas_wrath · 2013-01-23 16:39 · Score: 1
  
  No, the great core explosion; this is why the Puppeteers have sent the fleet of worlds to escape the disaster.
  
  --
  liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
12. Re:Reaffirms my theory by davester666 · 2013-01-23 19:03 · Score: 2
  
  So, it'll be a dry heat?
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
13. Re:Reaffirms my theory by citizenr · 2013-01-23 20:02 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, heat death is most probably how the world will end, unless some radical new insight is thought up.
  I am sure someone will come up with a way to reverse the entropy.
  
  --
  Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
14. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Endlisnis · 2013-01-24 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  This article says 1 billion years, but we will run out of atmospheric carbon dioxide long before that. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=908
15. Re:Reaffirms my theory by steelfood · 2013-01-24 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  This article says 1 billion years, but we will run out of atmospheric carbon dioxide long before that.
  The solution? Start pumping it into the atmosphere now.
  
  --
  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
16. Re:Reaffirms my theory by Nocturna81 · 2013-01-24 07:12 · Score: 1
  
  I believe there might be a way: http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm :)
Universal cooling by InPursuitOfTruth · 2013-01-23 12:26 · Score: 4, Funny

We need to start pumping more carbon dioxide into the universe!
1. Re:Universal cooling by GameboyRMH · 2013-01-24 01:39 · Score: 1
  
  Don't worry this universal cooling thing is just a great big hoax designed to spur the passage of anti-freedom pollution regulations before the supposed "heat death of the universe." Just ignore the alarmists, the universe has been cooling for a long time and I'm sure it can adapt.
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Fail, fail, fail. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 12:26 · Score: 5, Informative

267.92C is 5.23 K, not 5.08 K, and 270.27C is freaking hot.
1. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 12:28 · Score: 1
  
  ... and also, Slashdot ate my unicode characters. Come on, Slashdot, join us in the 21st century! You'll be fine, I promise!
2. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by anarcobra · 2013-01-23 12:31 · Score: 1
  
  no,
  it's 541.07K
3. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Georules · 2013-01-23 12:37 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, a lot of fail there. I have no idea what temperatures the summary is trying to express.
4. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by angry+tapir · 2013-01-23 12:41 · Score: 1
  
  I fucked up and dropped a "-" :(
5. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by angry+tapir · 2013-01-23 12:47 · Score: 1
  
  I dropped a "-" damn it.
6. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Your.Master · 2013-01-23 13:31 · Score: 1
  
  ...no, it almost never does, except in accounting.
7. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Georules · 2013-01-23 14:57 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, good. Thanks for the fix :)
8. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Georules · 2013-01-23 15:00 · Score: 2
  
  parenthesis around a number almost always indicate a negative number
  So from the summary:
  
  (5.08 Kelvin)
  would be negative Kelvin? OK.
9. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by TapeCutter · 2013-01-23 15:28 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Just make it 640K, that should be enough for any universe.
  
  --
  And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
10. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by HornWumpus · 2013-01-23 17:20 · Score: 2
  
  Get out beancounter. We don't like your kind around here.
  
  --
  John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
11. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 00:46 · Score: 1
  
  The minus sign is plain ASCII. And Slashdot doesn't eat ASCII characters.
  -273.15
  So, next time, be smart and use a browser which doesn't mangle your input! (pun intended)
12. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 00:48 · Score: 1
  
  I hate to break it on you, but the minus sign is ASCII, and last time I checked, Slashdot leaves ASCII characters alone... But maybe you browser (or OS?) doesn't?
13. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 00:50 · Score: 1
  
  I dropped a "-" damn it.
  see? there it is, the minus!
  So no need to blame Slashdot for dropping a character which is plain ASCII...
14. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 00:52 · Score: 1
  
  Exactly. In mathematics, parenthesis are for grouping, and in every day's language they are used for adding a clarification/additional detail.
  The - is the correct way to express negativity, unless you are using word or wordpress, in which case it may end up getting mangled.
15. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Lachlan+Hunt · 2013-01-24 03:39 · Score: 1
  
  He was presumably talking about the degrees symbol (U+00B0).
  
  --
  By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
16. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Lachlan+Hunt · 2013-01-24 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  That's U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS, which is in ASCII. But U+2212 MINUS SIGN, assuming that's what he tried to use, is not in ASCII.
  
  --
  By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
17. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 03:43 · Score: 1
  
  No, he was talking about both the minus and the degree sign. But you are right the degree symbol is indeed not ASCII, but ISO-Latin-1 (a very common 8 bit charset which is a subset of ASCII). Oddly enough, Slashdot still removes it, even though it predates Unicode.
18. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 03:48 · Score: 1
  
  Why the hell would he do such a braindead thing? Or is this a case of pre-typing his comment in Word, which mangles it, before copy-pasting it back into the browser. Or does Internet Exploder now also do "smart-quotes" (smart minus?)
  As I said in one other comment, the minus sign is in all character sets, even the oldest one, because it is a sign for an arithmetic operation. And arithmetic signs were present in character sets since the dawn of the computing age, since computation was their primary purpose back then. Just picture a pocket calculator without a - ...
19. Re:Fail, fail, fail. by Kizul+Emeraldfire · 2013-01-25 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  ...And arithmetic signs were present in character sets since the dawn of the computing age, since computation was their primary purpose back then. ...
  Technically, the only proper mathematical operator that's ever been available for use on any keyboard is the + character. The proper symbol for subtraction has never been available (instead, we've made do with the hyphen), and the asterisk and forward slash have all but entirely replaced the '×' and '÷' characters*.
  The proper arithmetic signs for multiplication and division have also (to my knowledge) never been properly recognized in programming languages as a routine, variable, or anything else, unless manually coded as such by the programmer.
  *(Which, assuming Slashdot ate them, are the proper symbols for 'Multiplication' and 'Division', respectively.)
uni cooling? by ganjadude · 2013-01-23 12:29 · Score: 2, Funny

wait wait wait a minute, you first its global cooling, than warming, now universal cooling? WHAT IS IT!!!?!?!?!!

/joke

--
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
1. Re:uni cooling? by game+kid · 2013-01-23 12:56 · Score: 1
  
  Some say the world will end in fire,
  Some say in ice.
  That's why I attack with
  Raw magic instead.
  --Archmage Robert Frost, "Fire and Ice and Arcane"
  
  --
  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
2. Re:uni cooling? by UltraZelda64 · 2013-01-23 15:00 · Score: 1
  
  Both. WE'RE FUCKlNG DOOMED!!!
Is this news? by BenSchuarmer · 2013-01-23 12:37 · Score: 2

Quit complaining and put on a sweater!
Hipster cosmologists by reverseengineer · 2013-01-23 12:43 · Score: 5, Funny

Yeah, they knew about the universe before it was cool.

--
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
1. Re:Hipster cosmologists by pongo000 · 2013-01-23 12:57 · Score: 1
  
  Bruce Schneier knew about the universe before it was cool.
  FTFY.
2. Re:Hipster cosmologists by girlintraining · 2013-01-23 13:03 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, they knew about the universe before it was cool.
  Actually, according to the poster, it's heated up by a considerable margin. "Which is warmer than today's universe (270.27 degrees Celsius)." I'd like to buy a math transform, an inverse abs() function please?
  
  --
  #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I screwed up the temperature by dropping a "-" by angry+tapir · 2013-01-23 12:45 · Score: 1

should be: The team measured the temperature at -267.92 degrees Celsius (5.08 Kelvin), which is warmer than today's universe (-270.27 degrees Celsius). I suck.
1. Re:I screwed up the temperature by dropping a "-" by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 00:54 · Score: 1
  
  The platonic kind of love, not the 'I want to have your babies' kind, so don't get any funny ideas.
  I hate to break it on you, but the love you're thinking about doesn't lead to babies either in this case. Or do you really believe that there any girls here on Slashdot?
2. Re:I screwed up the temperature by dropping a "-" by ArsenneLupin · 2013-01-24 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  In this case 0K is minus 272.15 degrees C-off by the decimal portion.
  No, it's -273.15 C
  Oh, and you can type the - sign. You know, this has been used to signify subtraction since the dawn of the computing age (... and even before). So, do you really believe that this sign was not present in the oldest character encodings such as ASCII?
3. Re:I screwed up the temperature by dropping a "-" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-01-24 02:33 · Score: 1
  
  not the 'I want to have your babies' kind, so don't get any funny ideas.
  That's a good idea, sir, kidnapping his napping kids would be a federal offense!
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
Sure the universe is cool, but so are black holes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-23 12:47 · Score: 1

Has anyone got a number for the amount of heat locked up in black holes?
And when a black hole forms does the temperature of the universe experience a quantum drop?
Re:Size of Universe? by rpresser · 2013-01-23 13:04 · Score: 1

No.
Re:Sure the universe is cool, but so are black hol by rpresser · 2013-01-23 13:05 · Score: 1

Since the heat "locked up" in black holes hasn't disappeared from the universe, just become locked in a black hole, no, the average universe temperature doesn't drop.
Dude! by Tablizer · 2013-01-23 13:15 · Score: 1

That's really cool

--
Table-ized A.I.
Climate change by swillden · 2013-01-23 13:46 · Score: 1

Damn, this climate change is really getting out of control. It's bad enough that the planet's changing, but the universe?

--
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Re:Sure the universe is cool, but so are black hol by Genda · 2013-01-23 13:49 · Score: 2

In fact since due to time dilation, everything that drops into a blackhole seems to freeze at the event horizon, the energy radiating from the black hole must equal the energy that will be lost as a function of the matter that falls in.
And how did they take its temperature? by GatheringDust · 2013-01-23 14:34 · Score: 2

With a rectal thermometer the size of Uranus, of course...
Fix for global warming? by UltraZelda64 · 2013-01-23 14:46 · Score: 1

So I guess the real way to solve global warming is universal cooling. Hmmm.
Re:Sure the universe is cool, but so are black hol by HornWumpus · 2013-01-23 17:24 · Score: 1

If an observer dropped into a black hole their time would slow.
To an outside observer the stuff just falls in.

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Scientist says... by Genda · 2013-01-23 19:34 · Score: 1

The early universe was warm, almost balmy... a popular place for ancient New Yorkers to go in the winter.
Wow, cool! by gestalt_n_pepper · 2013-01-24 03:36 · Score: 1

Oh, come on, somebody had to say it.

--
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
colder by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · 2013-01-24 05:35 · Score: 1

Two degrees colder? Me, without my muff.