Universe Is Going To End Much Sooner Than Expected

Scientists at Radboud University in the Netherlands have revealed that, according to a new calculation, the universe will end “much sooner than expected.” Thankfully, all human life on Earth will be long gone by then.

The previous calculation for the end of the universe was that is would occur around 10^1,100 years from now (that’s a 1 followed by 1,100 zeroes). The new calculation drops that number all the way down to 10^78 years (or a 1 followed by just 78 zeroes).

“So the ultimate end of the universe comes much sooner than expected,” said study author and astrophysicist Heino Falcke, “but fortunately it still takes a very long time.”

This new number was determined using calculations based on Hawking radiation, named after British physicist Stephen Hawking. According to Science Alert, “Hawking radiation describes hypothetical particles formed by a black hole’s boundary. This radiation implies black holes have temperatures that are inversely proportional to their mass.”

This new study, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, is a follow-up to a 2023 paper in which these same scientists determined that black holes are not the only things in the universe that emit Hawking radiation.

This means that the space warping around neutron stars and white dwarfs, as well as massive galaxy clusters, should also be facilitating evaporation, according to the team’s model.

“After a very long period, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just like black holes,” Falcke explained in 2023. “This changes not only our understanding of Hawking radiation but also our view of the universe and its future.”

Using this information, the research team calculated a lifespan of 10^78 years for an average white dwarf star. Therefore that is a rough upper limit on the lifespan of regular matter in the universe.

Naturally, none of this will affect anyone that is alive today. The sun will become too hot for human life in about a billion years anyway. However, as study author Walter van Suijlekom stated, “By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day, we unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation.”