The universe is slowly dying – Le Point

The Universe is dying a slow death, according to an international team of scientists who measured the energy produced by 200,000 galaxies and discovered she was two times less than that generated there are two billion years. The researchers made the most accurate measurements ever made of energy in a fairly large portion of the space. The energy produced was halved and constantly decreasing, they discovered. “From now on, the universe is doomed to decline, as an old age that would last forever,” said Simon Driver, member of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (Icrar) of the State of Western Australia who participated the project. “The Universe collapsed on his sofa, brought the blanket to him and prepares to sleep a perpetual sleep,” he said.

The researchers used seven of the telescopes powerful on the planet to observe galaxies for eight years in 21 different wavelengths, such as infrared or ultraviolet, through the study Gama (Galaxy and Mass Assembly). Two NASA space telescopes, a space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales in particular have been involved in this study, a collaboration between a hundred scientists from more than 30 Australian universities, European and American.

Power Generation

“We used as many ground-based telescopes and space as possible to measure energy generated by over 200 000 galaxies in wavelengths as varied as possible, “said Simon Driver, who was present Monday in Hawaii project results at the International Astronomical Union. Much of the energy that flows in the universe was created after the Big Bang, but new energy is constantly released during nuclear fusion in stars.

Andrew Hopkins of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, says that researchers have known for some time that the pace of creation of stars in the universe is in decline. But this study shows that the rate of energy production decreases similarly in different wavelengths, he said. “Regardless of the wavelengths used, energy production slows in the same way,” said Andrew Hopkins. Researchers also hope that the data collected will provide a better understanding of galaxy formation process. They also want to expand their studies to document the production of energy throughout the history of the Universe.