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The universe has been around quite a while, and it is still growing. Even after billions of years, there are still many new stars being formed, and while old, the universe still has many billions of years left in front of it. That being said, one might wonder what it will look like in the distant future.
A new study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, was published on the University of Bonn website, which looks at this exact question.
The study was conducted by a team of scientists and is based on data gathered from the Euclid telescope. This telescope launched in 2023 and was positioned in the Sun-Earth Lagrange point, which is about 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) away from Earth.
It was designed to look out into the cosmos and create a map of what it sees.
The European Space Agency explains its mission:
“The space telescope will create a great map of the large-scale structure of the Universe across space and time by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how structure has formed over cosmic history, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.”
Using the first set of data that came in, the team, led by Dr. Ryley Hill at the University of British Columbia, were able to analyze the temperature of cosmic dust in different parts of the universe, which helps to show just how actively new stars are being made compared to how they are burning out.
In a statement, Dr. Hill says:
“By combining the data and having such a huge sample of galaxies – 2.6 million of them – we can produce the most statistically robust calculations to date. In the past, researchers wouldn’t have a large enough sample, or might be missing key populations of cold or hot galaxies. Since Euclid is so comprehensive, you can really measure dust temperatures in a way you can’t argue with.”
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What they found is that the universe is getting colder, and it has been for quite a long time. This means that there are fewer stars being created and more burning out.
Dr. Hill explains:
“The Universe will just get colder and deader from now on. The amount of dust in galaxies and their dust temperatures have been decreasing for billions of years, which means we’re past the epoch of maximum star formation. Dust grains are connected with star formation, and when stars burn up, they make a whole bunch of dust grains in the process.”
While it may seem a little scary that the universe is seemingly dying, it isn’t likely a problem that any of us will have to deal with. There are still many billions of years left in the universe, and who knows what we might discover between now and then.
Of all the threats humanity faces, this is certainly one of the smallest.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.