Universe is 'dark' in 100b years
Source: Xinhua |
August 24, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Astronomers should feel lucky they have a space full of stars, galaxies and other objects to study after Nobel Prize laureate Brian P. Schmidt suggested that the universe would eventually fade away.
"Human beings will look to an empty universe in 100 billion years, as all the galaxies will fade away except the Milky Way we live in," said Schmidt during the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union held in Beijing from August 20 to 31.
Schmidt shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Before their discoveries, it was commonly thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing down.
Schmidt and his partners discovered that billion-year-old exploding stars and their galaxies are accelerating away from their reference frame.
Their discoveries led to research on dark energy, a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. "Unless dark energy suddenly disappears, that will surprise us as we can't really think of a reason why - the universe will continue to expand more and more quickly and eventually fade away," Schmidt said.
Eagerly searching for life signals in the universe, human beings - if we still exist - will feel lonelier in a dark universe in 100 billion years.
"Our Milky Way will still be here and merge with some nearby galaxies," Schmidt said, "but other things we see today will not be able to reach us in the future. Every galaxy beyond the Milky Way will disappear." At that time, astronomers will all be unemployed because there will be nothing to work at, he said.
"The universe does what it does and I'm here to measure, not to judge," he added.
"Human beings will look to an empty universe in 100 billion years, as all the galaxies will fade away except the Milky Way we live in," said Schmidt during the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union held in Beijing from August 20 to 31.
Schmidt shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Before their discoveries, it was commonly thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing down.
Schmidt and his partners discovered that billion-year-old exploding stars and their galaxies are accelerating away from their reference frame.
Their discoveries led to research on dark energy, a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. "Unless dark energy suddenly disappears, that will surprise us as we can't really think of a reason why - the universe will continue to expand more and more quickly and eventually fade away," Schmidt said.
Eagerly searching for life signals in the universe, human beings - if we still exist - will feel lonelier in a dark universe in 100 billion years.
"Our Milky Way will still be here and merge with some nearby galaxies," Schmidt said, "but other things we see today will not be able to reach us in the future. Every galaxy beyond the Milky Way will disappear." At that time, astronomers will all be unemployed because there will be nothing to work at, he said.
"The universe does what it does and I'm here to measure, not to judge," he added.
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