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The universe will end with stellar fireworks

2020-08-13T10:04:16.446Z


New alternative theory to slow and soft shutdown (ANSA)A final with a bang, indeed, with bangs: in billions and billions of years the universe could shut down in a spectacular way, illuminated by a series of explosions triggered by stellar wrecks called black dwarfs. To trace this pyrotechnic scenario, very different from that of the slow and subdued extinguishing hypothesized so far, is the physicist Matt Caplan of the University of Illinois, author ...


A final with a bang, indeed, with bangs: in billions and billions of years the universe could shut down in a spectacular way, illuminated by a series of explosions triggered by stellar wrecks called black dwarfs. To trace this pyrotechnic scenario, very different from that of the slow and subdued extinguishing hypothesized so far, is the physicist Matt Caplan of the University of Illinois, author of a study to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Current models indicate that in a very distant future (in a number of years expressed as 1 followed by a hundred zeros) stars will stop being born, galaxies will become dark and even black holes will evaporate, leaving only energy and subatomic particles. The expansion of space will bring the temperature close to absolute zero, marking the thermal death of the universe. In this scenario so dark, cold and bleak, however, there could be a surprise: to organize it would be the white dwarfs, stars like the Sun that have burned all the fuel and have lost their outer layers.


Artist's impression of a black dwarf (source: NASA / JPL-Caltech)


"They are essentially like pans removed from the stove," explains Caplan. "They are destined to cool down more and more", becoming black dwarfs. The fact that they are cold, however, does not mean that the nuclear reactions within them have ceased. According to Caplan's calculations, in fact, white dwarfs with a mass slightly higher than that of the Sun could continue to fuel nuclear reactions due to their very high density. In the long run, these reactions would end up causing a strong instability that would lead to collapse and a colossal explosion equal to that of supernovae.

"This study theorizes a phenomenon that should occur in a time difficult to imagine, much larger than the age of the universe itself, but it is in any case of interest because we know that any phenomenon permitted by the laws of physics, in a fairly large universe and in quite a long time, sooner or later it will happen ", comments Massimo Della Valle, research director of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) at the Capodimonte Observatory. "If it really happens - continues the expert - this show will not be able to have spectators anyway: due to the expansion of the universe, the galaxies and the remains of the stars will be so far apart that these explosions will take place in total solitude".

Source: ansa

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