Jim,
OK I see where you are going with this. The universe is now just on average just a tad above absolute zero, so energy leaked or dissapated (entropy) into the universe at an enormous rate at the moment of the big bang. Then the flow of entropy slowed down to its present ever much slower snail present rate.
I would think the universe is about at 1 peco second from the big bang and total infinite maximum entropy will be reached in the unimagibable far future, when the univere reaches absolute zero in trillions of years . "On the cosmic hour so to speak"
I add the article below just for fun , but it should give you some indication of where we truly are in the life span of our universe if it died a cold heat death
The universe this incredible place is exactly is heading into a mind-boggling eternal future that many, physicists expect.
Empty your mind. Were about to take a BIG leap into the future. Not just a lousy few billions of years, but 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 years!
One googol years, is the official word for that number. Its the current age of the Universe, one billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion times over. Squeeze the entire history of our Universe into the thickness of a dollar bill, and one googol years would give you a pile of money that reaches one hundred quadrillion quadrillion quadrillion quadrillion light years high. It wouldnt even fit in our Universe.
One googol years.
Thats truly staggering. Beyond anything a human can comprehend.
First, lets fast-forward to the not-so-awfully-far future. For the coming billions of years, scientists predict quite a ride. The Sun will explode, the Milky Way will slam into another galaxy.
The Cosmos might collapse, or get torn apart -- scientists cant seem to decide yet which is more likely. And even if the Universe doesnt do that, were destined to face a weird and horrible crisis, which involves us spending our lifetime as sleeping robots.
The problem is that the Universe gets bigger and cooler. Ever since the Big Bang, it expands, much like an expanding ball of fire after an explosion. Right now, the Universe is still young. It has these cute stars and twinkling galaxies. But in the long run, that will change. Slowly but inevitably, the Universe will empty itself.
Big Nothing: Eventually, the Universe will become a dark, sterile place
First, the galaxies will fly out of sight, beyond the horizon of what we can possibly see. Next, the stars in our own galaxy will burn out, one after the other. The only thing that will remain, is a dull graveyard of cold planets, dead suns and black holes. In about one hundred trillion years, the Milky Way will go black, astronomers expect.
And eventually, even this graveyard decays. One after the other, the dead stars and planets are eaten by black holes, or kicked out of the Milky Way by collisions. Astronomers expect that in one hundred to one thousand billion billion years, our galaxy has dissolved completely.
Time goes on.
After a while (more trillions of years) something else will kick in. Youll notice that even the very stuff nature is made of, isnt stable. A proton, the particle youll find in the core of atoms, has an average lifetime of 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 years. Wait long enough, and it will suddenly vanish. Poof, gone. The same goes for light particles, the so-called photons. Theyre expected to last a few zeros longer, but in the end, they too will kick the bucket, one after the other. Isnt that just bizarre? The light will go out, literally.
The last thing that survives, are the black holes. But in the end, they too will vanish. They will evaporate in a puff of radiation.
So there we are, at our unimaginable one googol years. Finally, the Universe is totally and utterly empty. You wont see any light or spot any planet -- in fact, you wont even find the tiniest speck of dust. The Universe has sterilized itself. All there is left, is emptiness, and darkness.
Total oblivion. And worst of all: theres nothing we can do to stop it. We can build fancy machines or futuristic devices all we like -- but in the end, theyll all get kicked out of existence, when the matter they are made of simply vanishes.
So there you have it: infinity. Booooring, we must add.
But dont sob. Theres an upside.
As the quadrillions of years pass by, something very odd should happen. In eternity, even the rarest events get a chance to occur. Weird, bizarre phenomena that only happen once in a zillion years or so, become quite normal.
For example: the nothingness should yield a few surprises. Already, physicists know that in a vacuum, there are sometimes tiny little energy blobs. Little, random fluctuations of the so-called quantum vacuum. Out of nowhere, tiny particles pop in and out of existence. But theory predicts that on very, VERY rare occasions, the fluctuations should be a bit larger. Out of nowhere, an entire atom might appear! Or hey, the vacuum may even spit out a few of them!
Think of it like the static on TV. Wait long enough, and out of the random fuzz, a recognizable image might materialize. Wait REALLY long, and one day a complete episode of The Bold And The Beautiful should accidentally show up!
In the vastness of eternity, even things that are almost impossible become real. Like the sudden appearance of, say, a light green buste of Napoleon Bonaparte.
In the Universe, this should give some really surprising results. With eternity at hand, the vacuum should begin to yield all kinds of objects. Incoherent lumps of random garbage, most of the time. But on very, very rare occasions, youll see other objects popping into existence. The Eiffel tower. A purple camel. A golden parking garage filled with chocolate Cadillacs. Napoleon Bonaparte sitting next to Mike Tyson on top of a stack of comic books. As the googols of years pass by, its all there.
In the VERY, VERY, VERY long run, the vacuum will even belch up complete planets, and beautiful stars, burning and all. Theoretically the vacuum should even churn out a complete solar system one day, identical to ours, with a planet Earth inhabited by people. "In an infinite amount of time, one day, I will reappear", as physicist Katherine Freese of Michigan University once put it. "An crazy thought, but true."
One day the black nothingness should even produce a new Big Bang. Admittedly, well have wait really long for it to happen. Researchers of the University of Chicago once tried to calculate it. And according to their best estimates, it should happen somewhere over the next 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 years. Thats a one with 1056 zeros. You can count them, if you like.
Scary
Alan
I feel as if I am a small boy holding but a teaspoon of knowledge standing before the Infinity Ocean of all knowledge
