Current Events > So if the universe is expanding and we will eventually have heat death

(+) Yeah! (+)

Will it come to a point where the universe starts to contract back into a singularity?

Does this then reset the universe? Has this been going on for trillions of years?

I'm still confident we have no clue what the universe really is, how it was created, and how it will end.

The true multiverse, just constantly resetting every trillion years, throwing out every possible probability for eternity.
This is why you get deja vu.

There's no need for the universe to reset. It can just entirely go to nothing.

I've had this theory. I imagine it's like a hourglass. We are currently filling the void. The method for contraction I haven't figured out yet

cuh posted...

These are two different things, Heat Death and the Big Crunch

Right but has then been going on for many cycles?

Apparently some scientists think a new universe could arise even with heat death. If everything came from nothing before, it could happen again. But really nobody really for sure knows. We probably will never understand the mechanics of the end of the universe. And humans will likely be long extinct by the time it happens anyway

Bounce too

do we even know if we're even the first universe to exist? how many times have we reset?

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

do we even know if we're even the first universe to exist? how many times have we reset?

Jehovah Witnesses: " stay right where you fucking are"

The whole point of the heat death of the universe is that no work can be done and therefore no change can be made. If it was truly heat dead, it wouldn't contract.

Futurama covered this and it comes back but about 10 feet lower I think.

Heat death seems so finite.

I thought heat death meant that everything in the universe can no longer sustain itself at an atomic level and just dies.

Were all gonna die

It expands until size becomes a meaningless measurement, making another singularity form from a quantum fluctuation.

the dimensional merge is quickening

It keeps expanding until molecules also expand, and then everything keeps expanding until there's nothing left to expand and everything just poofs out of existence.

misterbum posted...

Were all gonna die

nuh uh

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

do we even know if we're even the first universe to exist? how many times have we reset?

I don't think we even reset, I think we're just one bubble amongst an infinite amount of other bubbles

We don't know. But there's no particular observed reason the space wouldn't just pointlessly expand forever.

Garioshi posted...

The whole point of the heat death of the universe is that no work can be done and therefore no change can be made. If it was truly heat dead, it wouldn't contract.

Space doesn't rely on heat tho.

"we"

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It keeps expanding well after heat death which means theres nothing but the laws of physics in all directions essentially infinitely forever. So then size/time isnt a meaningful question.

Then a vacuum fluctuation which is a spontaneously change of energy that pops in and out of existence and happens in quantum physics occurs close enough to trigger a singularity that bangs again.

PoopPotato posted...

The true multiverse, just constantly resetting every trillion years, throwing out every possible probability for eternity.
This is why you get deja vu.

We know why you get deja vu, and thats not it.

Glob posted...

We know why you get deja vu, and thats not it.

Is this a matrix reference?

Heat Death of the universe is just a prediction based on current observations. There's no reason to believe the universe will continue to expand indefinitely. Just that if it did, we'd eventually get the heat death of the universe.

It is expanding because we are stuck in a black hole without realizing it.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Heat Death of the universe is just a prediction based on current observations. There's no reason to believe the universe will continue to expand indefinitely. Just that if it did, we'd eventually get the heat death of the universe.

Even if it did, it would cease to be within our understanding and predictions of what would occur. Were still discovering elements and struggling with quantum physics, to assume we would even be able to comprehend the universe after such an event is arrogance. Not you personally, its more of a broad statement. I liked your post.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Heat Death of the universe is just a prediction based on current observations. There's no reason to believe the universe will continue to expand indefinitely. Just that if it did, we'd eventually get the heat death of the universe.

Even if the universe didn't expand in any way, we'd still get heat death. Unless we find out that the laws of thermodynamics, which are more ironclad than basically any other natural law you can think of, can be broken, it's still happening.

the universe ends when the cosmic system runs out of RAM

FL81 posted...

the universe ends when the cosmic system runs out of RAM

Running out of RAM is what causes a black hole. Heat death is 0% battery. >_>

Diceheist posted...

Running out of RAM is what causes a black hole. Heat death is 0% battery. >_>

true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71eUes30gwc

Kurzgesagt comes out with this video just in time for this topic :p

Very interesting

My theory is that gravity is constantly pulling on everything, and eventually the force of gravity will bring the universe back together.

The weird thing about gravity, to me, is that it's a force that doesn't seem to require any energy. So even when the universe is 'out' of energy, there will still be gravity to pull it all back together and start all over from a tiny singularity or whatever.

I'm not a physicist, I don't know the details, but that's what I believe. I don't think there will ever be a permanent end to the universe.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

My theory is that gravity is constantly pulling on everything, and eventually the force of gravity will bring the universe back together.

The weird thing about gravity, to me, is that it's a force that doesn't seem to require any energy. So even when the universe is 'out' of energy, there will still be gravity to pull it all back together and start all over from a tiny singularity or whatever.

I'm not a physicist, I don't know the details, but that's what I believe. I don't think there will ever be a permanent end to the universe.

It does not "require" energy but it will eventually reach a state of equilibrium where things pulling on each other just cancel out.

Tyranthraxus posted...

It does not "require" energy but it will eventually reach a state of equilibrium where things pulling on each other just cancel out.

I don't think that's going to happen, personally. Our best predictive mathematicians and physicists and shit can't even conclusively solve the "Three Body Problem," so I don't really trust a prediction which is essentially the "infinite body problem," if such a thing exists.

No. Our current understanding of cosmology is that the universe will expand for basically forever to the point where the faint remains of particles are all countless light-years apart at their closest.

And then to state my belief, which does have some physicist support, is that untold eons afterwards there'll be quantum fluctuations that cause a new big bang. We are essentially the googolplexth iterarion of the universe, with each iterarion lasting a googolplex years, significantly rounding down on both numbers.

A good visual cue:

https://youtu.be/Zb5qTdb6LbM?si=N4pPn7Jn1D5Ix5Aw

Tyranthraxus posted...

It does not "require" energy but it will eventually reach a state of equilibrium where things pulling on each other just cancel out.

In other words the universe stabilizes. Maybe the universe won't ever reach hear death or collapse once it becomes stable. Maybe us making gravy drives will fuck with the natural order of the universe or something.

LeoRavus posted...

I'm still confident we have no clue what the universe really is, how it was created, and how it will end.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

A big crunch would kind of violate the 2nd law. Entropy can't decrease.

Heat death is probably inevitable. An incomprehensible amount of time after heat death, another universe should pop up. After an even more incomprehensible amount of not only time, but new universes, an exact copy of this universe should technically pop up. This would happen infinitely over infinite time.

Tora_Sami posted...

In other words the universe stabilizes. Maybe the universe won't ever reach hear death or collapse once it becomes stable.

That is heat death.

Garioshi posted...

That is heat death.

So the universe stabilizing brings about destruction?

Pikachuchupika posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71eUes30gwc

Kurzgesagt comes out with this video just in time for this topic :p

Very interesting

I love Kurzgesagt

Tora_Sami posted...

So the universe stabilizing brings about destruction?

nothing is destroyed. The universe just has no more energy left. All the matter is still there it just doesn't move.

Tyranthraxus posted...

nothing is destroyed. The universe just has no more energy left. All the matter is still there it just doesn't move.

Well I would think there is a difference between stagnant and stable though. Stabilization isn't stagnation. Things will still be moving, the universe just won't be expanding. But I think it will expand eternally it will just be at such a slow pace it may seem stagnant. Kind of like that effect that makes water look solid. New suns will always be created and new worlds will be eternally formed. Then maybe, maybe, one day the universe will contract until it explodes again, renewing materials and worlds and suns in a endless cycle of life. It's possible that we are in the first cycle or we could be in the bajillions.

If there's no sound in space there was no big bang.

heat death just means the universe becomes inert because all the chemical reactions are exhausted due to entropy. eventually there will be no more new suns created.