The Universe Is Almost Done Making Stars

[Still Waters]

In its youth, the universe was a roiling soup of star ingredients, with new stars forming rapidly. But now it’s much quieter, and things are not expected to get more exciting anytime soon, astronomers say.

For the first time, astronomers have figured out the universe's star-birth rate, and found that today, it's 30 times lower than its likely peak some 11 billion years ago. As a result, all of the future stars may be no more than a 5 percent increase above what we’ve got now.

http://www.popsci.co...ly-any-new-ones

[Old Man Waffles]

What would happen if all the stars die? would we all die

[Pupp3t]

If the stars DID die, wouldn't we experience the burst of super-novas at once? Or extruciating pain from black holes?

[C235]

Our time is as short as a life of a bubble compared to universal scale.

[Rlyeh]

What would happen if all the stars die? would we all die

You'd be long dead anyway.

[Old Man Waffles]

You'd be long dead anyway.

Phew! *wipes sweat off forehead*

[spud the mackem]

How long have we got ?.I must put the kettle on if I have time.

[ninjadude]

Waspie, this is kind of unexpected isn't it? Nova redisperse matter and gas for new star creation. I can see some fall off from the "beginning" but they seem to be saying more than that. Expansion of the universe spreading matter too far apart...but near black holes (and those at the center of galaxies) new star creation is happening quicker because of all the matter available.

Edited November 10, 2012 by ninjadude

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Waspie, this is kind of unexpected isn't it?

No, it's absolutely what you would expect. Entropy means that the system of recycling material into more stars simply must break down eventually. No system can remain in equilibrium forever.

[Briggstan]

This is very interesting, could there be qualities we don't understand yet that could make the universe exist longer than we can predict? I imagine our sun exploding would be one thing, but what about black holes do they exist forever?

[Pyridium]

Think about this. Based on the numbers supplied in the OP, there are about 100 times as manty stars in the universe whose light has yet to reach us. I agree that we have reached the peak in star formation, but we have yet to receive the light from trillions of stars born in the past several milion years. What you see at night is 1% of the light that is headed our way. If we could magically flip a switch and "see" these stars, our night sky would be solid white with stars light.

We are 14 billion years away from the big bang. Draw a line from here to the point of the bang. This is the radius. We can only see half of our half of the universe in a 90 degree spread from the point of the bang to where we are now. We will never see the light generated from the other side of the universe, or other side of the big bang.

I believe big bangs happen all the time. Our big bang occured at the same time as another big bang, 15 billion light years away. It will still take 1 billion years before we can see the light from this "other' universe. Rest assured, if humanity survives the death of our universe, we will just find a new, younger universe to move to...lol.

[Bling]

I wanna name a star Bling, do I have time?

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I wanna name a star Bling, do I have time?

You have time, but not the right. Only the International Astronomical Union get to name stars. All those companies that take peoples money to name stars are just conning people as those names have no official recognition.

[minera]

they just added another thing to worry about with all the doomsday crap. If nothing happens at the end of the year we should sue all the fear mongers........ ! We have nothing to worry about since our life time is less than a blink of an eye in the universe.

Edited November 11, 2012 by minera

[sergeantflynn]

What ? No more new stars in 11 Billion years time ? How are we supposed to manage then ? I`ll just have to look at the moon . Boring .

[Imaginarynumber1]

On the home page this story is titled "Has the Universe almost done making stars?"

For shame...

Edited November 11, 2012 by Imaginarynumber1

[Christopher Vera]

I've often said that those who worry about global warming are short-sighted fools. Its galatic cooling that has me scared! :-) Its easy to make a prediction millions of years into the future, no matter how good the mathmatics. Who would hold you to it? In any case, the universe is far more unpredictable than we give it credit for. A little cosmic collision with a neighboring universe and we'll be big bangin' all over again. Like some other posters, I'm very curious as to what point a black hole gets to before it releases its energy, forcefully or otherwise.

[-M7]

I theorize that stars will continue to be made as long as the resources/matter are available for their creation...its just a theory though.

[Eliseldritch]

Right at the moment there's an academic opposition to Global Warming, the Mayan 2012 doom's day lurches around the corner; right at the moment experts issue well substantiated criticism on that matter, they insist the universe itself is dying out. So what's next, He-man dies of testicular cancer?

[GirlfromOz]

I would expect that,with the life expectancy of stars declining,that black holes would also face a life cycle that includes dissipating & losing momentum.

[GirlfromOz]

PS The very black holes, that the many scientists theorise about,are but mere whirlpools created by the many thermodynamic energies released near them.They accumulate speed,therefore accelerating to an incomprehensible speed,sucking up what ever comes near to the vortex.The stars,planets etc become sucked into them & pulvarised.However,Stars are produced by the gravitational forces surrounding the vicinity of many localised gases that accumulate via the forces of gravity.etc,thus producing a star.There must of coarse come a time where these areas in the universe become exhausted of the presence of these gases of which we observe of what becomes a Star.Thus the decline in the birth of new stars.

[ninjadude]

h a neighboring universe

Say what?

[The Id3al Experience]

Say what?

'

He either beleives in the mulitverse theory or he was meaning galaxies as we are destinded to collide with another in the near future(universes near future, not earth bound near future)

[Tommy13]

The universe will never be done making stars. All energy is neither created nor destroyed. It's only transferred. It will cannibalize and recreate, that's all she wrote.

[UFO_Monster]

Right at the moment there's an academic opposition to Global Warming, the Mayan 2012 doom's day lurches around the corner; right at the moment experts issue well substantiated criticism on that matter, they insist the universe itself is dying out. So what's next, He-man dies of testicular cancer?

In this topic: Everything dies.

Sadly, that's how life works. Everything has an end. I hate endings.