Within the grand bookkeeping system of the universe’s timeline, the universe’s ultimate demise has always appeared as an entry well beyond the reaches of possibility so far off on the horizon as to be considered infinite. However, new studies out of Radboud University in the Netherlands have challenged this timeline and indicated that the universe will succumb to the darkness far sooner than was ever considered possible. This study combines the principles of astrophysics and quantum mechanics in order to illustrate the universal decay process that occurs in all black holes and other dense objects in space.
Physicist Stephen Hawking’s brilliant theory in 1975 that black holes could radiate energy due to quantum phenomena in the vicinity of their event horizon had been seen as a contradiction of Einstein’s theory that black holes could only increase in size. “Hawking radiation” occurs when a pair of virtual particles appears briefly in the vicinity of the event horizon of a black hole, with the particle being pulled towards the black hole while the other escapes, thus reducing the black hole’s mass over time, causing it to evaporate completely in an incredibly long period of time.
It was recently proven by Heino Falcke, Michael Wondrak, and Walter van Suijlekom that it is not necessary that the event horizon be involved in this process in order for it to happen. What this means is that it is possible for radiation to escape not just black holes, but other dense objects such as neutron stars and white dwarfs, based solely on the curvature of spacetime, causing particles to separate in order to escape.
The results, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, put the maximum age of the universe at 1078 years, or one followed by 78 zeroes. Although this is an unintelligible number, it is still significantly lower than the previous estimate of 101100 years. The reason for this adjustment is the realization that Hawking-type radiation is a general property of all compact objects, and does not depend on the strength of the gravitational pull.
One of the interesting results obtained is that neutron stars and black holes have the same timescale for evaporation, which is 1067 years. This is because black holes, despite their strong gravity, have no physical surface, meaning they reabsorb their own radiation, thus taking longer to decay, just like neutron stars. White dwarfs, which result from the exhaustion of fuel in our Sun, take even longer to become unstable.
To illustrate their research, they have calculated some fanciful examples: The evaporation times for a Moon-mass body and a human body would be approximately 1090 years; however, there are many other processes that would have destroyed them long before that. Such extreme examples are used to push the theory to its limits and to better understand the role of spacetime curvature on particle pair creation.
Although such a cosmic clock is still very much beyond any human relevance, its effects are trickled down to basic physics principles. The study provides a new approach to verify Hawking’s highly disputable hypothesis on quantum gravity. It is not a freeze but an evaporation of all matter in the universe, leading to a cold, featureless space with no light or form.
For the time being, stars are still shining, galaxies are still rotating, and black holes are still hiding their secrets. The new timeline serves as a reminder that even the most enduring features of the universe are only temporary and that the story of the universe, regardless of its length, is one of constant change leading to a final destination.
