Universe Closer To Heat Death Than Once Thought 237
TapeCutter writes "In a paper soon to be published (PDF) in the Astrophysical Journal, Australian researchers have estimated the entropy of the universe is about 30 times higher than previous estimates. According to their research, super-massive black holes 'are the largest contributor to the entropy of the observable universe, contributing at least an order of magnitude more entropy than previously estimated.' For those of us who like their science in the form of a car analogy, Dr. Lineweaver compared their results to a car's gas tank. He states, 'It's a bit like looking at your gas gauge and saying "I thought I had half a gas tank, but I only have a quarter of a tank."'"
Fortunately, that quarter of a tank will still get us as far as we need to go and then some.
OMG!!! (Score:5, Funny)
So as well as peak oil now we have to worry about peak universe?
Entropy increasing, Slashdot-style (Score:5, Funny)
So how much entropy does the fact that this story is a duplicate add to the universe?
Re:OMG!!! (Score:5, Funny)
...don't worry, the free market will save the universe (by making it so damned expensive to live here that corporations will arise and find us other universes to exploit, naturally...)
Does it bother anyone else (Score:5, Funny)
Does it bother anyone else that a guy named "Lineweaver" is making a car analogy that doesn't involve alcohol?
"Fortunately"?! (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, that quarter of a tank will still get us as far as we need to go and then some.
Yes, fortunately for us, maybe... but what about our children's children's children's ... (* 10^80) children? Won't someone please think of them?!?!
Oh noes! (Score:5, Funny)
- seeing a computer which can run Crysis?
- Duke Nukem: Forever release date?
- Hurd 1.0?
- kdawson leaving a story alone and publishing something accurate?
:-O
Re:As far as we need to go? (Score:5, Funny)
to the grave
The Universe is an infinite loop (Score:2, Funny)
Re:As far as we need to go? (Score:5, Funny)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, of course.
Re:bah (Score:4, Funny)
Re:OMG!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Forget global warming. Your SUV is causing universal warming!
Re:30x higher than whose estimate? (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, you now have about 3 weeks.
Please get your affairs in order , and top up your central heating tank.
Re:OMG!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:no problem (Score:2, Funny)
"(no red dwarf has ever died."
How about the BBC comedy series with Craig Charles and Chris Barrie?
Deep Space 9 (Score:3, Funny)
Patrick: "How much time do we have left?"
Jack: "Sixty trillion years, seventy at the most."
Patrick: "Oh, no."
Re:As far as we need to go? (Score:3, Funny)
the apple tablet announcement tomorrow.
Re:The Universe is an infinite loop (Score:4, Funny)
So on the previous iteration, a man named, coincidentally "Douglas Adams", in a language totally unrelated to but oddly identical to English, wrote a series of books where he concluded that the answer to life, the universe and everything was 41?
Re:OMG!!! (Score:3, Funny)
No you get more just like the universe but much smaller. Think super novas vs the big bang and how they get less frequent over time...
Re:two possible futures now cut shorter.... (Score:4, Funny)
10^640 years should be enough for anyone.
Re:OMG!!! (Score:4, Funny)
So as well as peak oil now we have to worry about peak universe?
Worrying isn't enough--it's time to ACT!
Assuming, of course, that this is anthropogenic entropy...
Re:two possible futures now cut shorter.... (Score:2, Funny)
Only 22 billion years left? Nobody panic! ...We still have time to exit the Universe in a "disorderly" manner.
As my professor said... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Oh noes! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not clear on what you mean by this... can you please explain it in terms of a car analogy?
No Problem (Score:3, Funny)
We'll just have the Logopolitans open a charged vacuum emboitment to E-Space. Entropy problem solved!
Re:OMG!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh noes! (Score:4, Funny)
It's like when you have a car, but the car is only useful for driving around in, not so much for explaining to people how you got there, and why you're naked and covered in potato peels, and why there are 17 empty cans of beer on the passenger seat, and why an alien baby is breaking out through your stomach and ellen riply is too busy fighting off the terminator from the future so she can't help you, but "new spock" is speaking in some weird irish accent for no apparent reason. We've all been there.