Scientists Just Moved Up the Death Date of the Universe

Researchers have found that the universe around us is decaying far more quickly than we thought, thanks to Hawking radiation, the idea that black holes "evaporate" over time due to the quirks of quantum effects. As detailed in a paper to be published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the scientists from Radboud University, Netherlands, found that the last remains of perished stars could take about ten to the power of 78 years (that's the number one followed by 78 zeroes) to disappear, as opposed to the previously calculated ten to the power of 1100 (that’s 1 followed by 1,100 zeroes, if you're counting). While that may still sound like a dramatically long time — which it certainly is — it's a considerable drop in how long we expected the universe as a whole to stick around for on a cosmic scale. Intriguingly, the team found that not just black holes can succumb to Hawking radiation. Other celestial objects, including neutron stars, the incredibly dense remains o ... Read full article.