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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: end of the universe
Message-ID: <277@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 19:55:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.277
Posted: Mon Aug 19 19:55:44 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 20:49:57 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Duke U Comp Ctr
Lines: 33

The 1985 August 3 issue of Science News has an article by D E Thompson
on cosmology that offers an interesting time frame from Frank Tippler at
Tulane.  Everyone has seen a sceneario for the Big Bang, but have you
seen one for the end of the universe?  The article projects what will
happen in a Big Crunch (assuming a closed universe), but that is less
interesting than the following future history for a flat or open
universe (the open and "flat" -neither close nor open- scenarios are
very similar, except that in the open there are some positrons and
electrons left around at the end).  The numbers on the left are years
from today in Fortran notation (1E9 means 1 times 10 to the 9th).

1E9	Sun leaves main sequence (big news all over galaxy :=)
1E12	New stars cease to form
1E15	All stars burned out
1E34	All planets and stars gone due to proton decay
1E54	Black holes of solar mass or smaller gone due to Hawking
	radiation
1E71	Positronium (paired electrons/positrons) most common "atom"
1E98	My August monthly report finished
1E102	All black holes, even those with mass of a supercluster of
	galaxies, lost to Hawking radiation
1E128	Only dim energy left

This should appeal to fans of Olaf Stapledon.  I note that in any of the
scenarios described (flat, open, or closed) the Universe ends with a
bang or a whimper, but it does end, and there is no serious prospect for
the survival of matter.  This clearly has negative implications for the
longterm performance of most stocks.
-- 
D Gary Grady
Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-3695
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