THE END OF TIME

[buzza72]

the truth is that we do not know..  It was not so long ago that we thought the earth was flat..  The universe is expanding, and this is deemed as fact.  However, will it expand forever, will it shrink..  Guesswork is all we can offer..  However, throw in the function of blackholes, and consider that energy is aiming for equilibrium, and think about white holes and the possibility of multiple universes and that white holes are the exit points of black holes into another universe...  Conjecture

[chiltonstar]

There is the view of course, usually expressed after a few glasses of good Shiraz, that what we call the Universe is merely a local peturbation in a far greater space time structure, so that even when our local "universe" dies, there will be an infinity of other such events taking place, or due to take place.

Chris

[laowho]

It seems like any version which includes a Big Bang must have an end which means the end of infinite space... an eventual end to expansion and the heat death of the universe. Again, what do I know, but it makes sense to me.- NateBirmingham, AL

Exactly...beginning and end are inseparable, no? And even contradictory. Check out Roger Penrose's "Aeons Before the Big Bang" on YouTube. He deals with the arrow of time and "The 2d Law..." as well. Love this stuff. While we're at it, what becomes of the inviolable preservations of energy and information in a "dead" universe? And do the inviolable principles somehow persist? Interesting to consider that there may still be physics and law and energy and information even in a dead universe, no?

[impactcrater]

so, is all the matter in a black hole lost forever or will the huge stretching of time and splace 'near the end' cause it to 'pop out again' and perhaps begin another Universe or indeed , multi Universes ?

[AstroJon]

so, is all the matter in a black hole lost forever or will the huge stretching of time and splace 'near the end' cause it to 'pop out again' and perhaps begin another Universe or indeed , multi Universes ?

Black holes will eventually evaporate. For a supermassive black hole this will take around 10^99 years, quicker for smaller black holes. It is therefore possible at this stage the universe would just consist of photons, electrons, protons and their antiparticles.

Here are a couple of links that I find interesting reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_Universe#Theories_about_the_end_of_universe

There is so much we don't know, remember it was only 15 or so years ago we discovered that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing and we don't even know if protons are stable. The last link discusses theories other than heat death, including multiverses.

[ultramol]

I know one thing,from being a small child and being told the universe was infinite my poor little brain used to go giddy. How can something not end. If it does end what is beyond the end? How can NOTHING exist. I pictured a wall !,but what was on the other side of that wall ? One thing is for sure. After reading all the links from this topic, that wall is being dismantled brick by brick. Great physicists, mathematicians and philosophers are slowly chipping away at my imaginary wall. Simple thought processes have been superseded by super computer models that can quickly prove or dispel theories, or at least point people in directions they can investigate and experiment . I have no doubt that the human brain evolved not by those ancestors that slept all night after a hard days hunting,but by the chap that sat at the mouth of the cave at night ,whilst everyone else was asleep ,when the fire went out, under absolute pitch black skies and looked UP. What went through their minds if we are as diversely baffled as we are now. I don't know if we will ever find out. One thing though is for sure. The Cosmos can send the hairs on my neck bolt upright, and for this you do not have to be a great physicist etc. As you look through the eyepiece or simply upwards on a dark night, the wonders of the universe will never cease to amaze, and provoke, men and women of any ability whatsoever. That is the beauty of this wonderful hobby we call astronomy...Well, that's my two penn'orth worth. ...Geoff

[impactcrater]

So , inside a black hole is time infinitely compressed and therefore paradoxically infinitely long, so that no matter how much observable time passes , time itself can never end...we are 'at the end' left with no matter but lots of time on our hands ?? !!

[AstroJon]

So , inside a black hole is time infinitely compressed and therefore paradoxically infinitely long, so that no matter how much observable time passes , time itself can never end...we are 'at the end' left with no matter but lots of time on our hands ?? !!

Ugh, black holes... One way to look at them is that at the event horizon time is no longer a valid coordinate of space. Another thing to consider is the frame of reference, for instance if I was to enter a black hole you never see me actually enter it but from my frame of reference it would be radically different. As for the interior of a black hole, we really need a quantum theory of gravity to try and understand what is going on.

It has been some time though since I did theorical physics and I couldn't really claim to understand properly at the time.

As for time, that is another question. In the October edition of Physics World (the IoP journal) there is a feature about 5 of the biggest unanswered questions in physics today. One of them is "What is time". This leads nicely to the original topic, all these theories and speculations about the fate of the universe which is in itself a fascinating subject but ultimately we don't even truly understand what time itself is.

[Sandancer10]

I seem to recall reading that at the molecular level matter pops in and out of existence.  So where does that come from? Is it possible that the multi-Universe theory is correct and again "there is more between Heaven and Earth than we can ever know"  One theory seems to replace another as time goes on and more becomes understood.

I remember looking out of the window and watching a spider on a spout and speculating if it understood even the very spout it was crawling around on.  A spider only knows its web and its immediate surroundings. It does not comprehend any technology that we use or indeed have experience other than its limited intelligence to make sense of its World.  In many ways I think we are Spiders in the Universe. Who knows what will happen, we can only speculate and try to make sense of it as best we can with our limited understanding.

[goodricke1]

Yes, and when we say the universe is 14 billion years old, this is purely from our own viewpoint... from the perspective of a beam of light whizzing through space, the universe is ZERO years old, since time stands still at the speed of light... and since no time has elapsed since first light, no distances have been traversed, therefore it can also be said that the size of the universe is... ZERO

Truth is stranger than fiction

[AstroJon]

Matter popping in and out of existence is due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Time and energy are not commutable. If the uncertainty in time is say 1fs, the uncertainty in energy is high enough for particles to wink in and out of existence.

[impactcrater]

so , time maybe 'the Final Frontier "