July 24th, 2010
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Our Ageing Universe
Written by Steve Nerlich
Energy transfer - something that old universes can't quite manage like they used to. Credit: Gemini observatory.
It all started so full of promise. All at once, our universe burst upon the scene, but much of that initial burst quickly dissipated into background neutrinos and photons – and ever since, pretty much everything our universe has ever done has just dissipated more energy. So, despite the occasional enthusiastic outburst of supernovae
and other celestial extravagances, it's becoming increasingly apparent that our universe is getting on a bit.
The second law of thermodynamics (the one about entropy) demands that everything goes to pot over time – since anything that happens is an opportunity for energy to be dissipate/.../
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