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According to scientists from Radboud University in the Netherlands, the last stars in the Universe will disappear in 1078 years (quinquintillion years), which is much earlier than was thought.
According to previous forecasts, the death of the Universe was supposed to occur in 101100 years. According to scientists, death of the universe approximates the process known as Hawking radiation. Back in 1974, physicist Stephen Hawking predicted that radiation near the event horizon of a black hole will gradually reduce its mass.
In a previous study conducted in 2023, physicists Heino Falke and Michael Vondrak and mathematician Walter van Suylekom have suggested that other objects, such as neutron stars, may evaporate in a similar way to black holes. Developing Hawking’s theory, Dutch scientists suggested that the effect of this radiation depends on the density of the object. They found that black holes and neutron stars need about the same amount of time for complete evaporation, which is equal to 1067 years.
As emphasized by Michael Vondrak, black holes have a stronger gravitational field, which should make them evaporate faster. But they have no surface and eventually absorb some of their own radiation, which slows down this process.
It was thought that this radiation was unique to black holes, but the researchers showed that objects such as neutron stars and white dwarfs can also evaporate. The researchers calculated how long it would take for other space objects to evaporate due to Hawking radiation. For example, the Moon will need about 1090 years to evaporate due to such radiation.
«Thus, the final end of the universe is coming much sooner than expected, but fortunately, it still takes a very long time. By asking such questions and considering extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory, and perhaps one day we will unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation», — explains Walter van Suylekom.
Meanwhile, as noted by According to Hawking, life on Earth could be completely destroyed by 2600. He based his forecast on the rapid growth of the population and the depletion of natural resources.
Interestingly, the validity of his assumptions was confirmed by NASA. The organization confirmed that humanity will indeed face an existential risk if the current rate of resource consumption continues. Uncontrolled resource depletion could potentially accelerate the timing of environmental collapse compared to Hawking’s predictions.
The results of the study are published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Source: Gizmodo