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Our universe may end the same way it was created: with a big, sudden bang. That's according to new research from a group of Harvard physicists, who found that the destabilization of the Higgs boson — a tiny quantum particle that gives other particles mass — could lead to an explosion of energy that would consume everything in the known universe and upend the laws of physics and chemistry.
As part of their study, published last month in the journal Physical Review D [open, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.97.056006] [DX], the researchers calculated when our universe could end. It's nothing to worry about just yet. They settled on a date 10139 years from now, or 10 million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years in the future. And they're at least 95% sure — a statistical measure of certainty — that the universe will last at least another 1058 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @06:58PM (3 children)
Another 10^58 years? I was hoping I wouldn't need to do my 2017 taxes.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
Instead of signing your taxes, just sign the exponent.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:19PM
We desperately need an "Ugh!" mod right now.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:48PM
The first Big Bang series has jumped the shark.
Sure hope these scientists make the second Big Bang series better (less Bill Gates love) and long after I am dead.
P.S.
So over Penny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:30PM (8 children)
So when they split the atom they were afraid they might destroy everything. Maybe this is the actual universe bomb? Forget about civilizations wiping themselves out, what about rebooting the entire universe?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:38PM (6 children)
The real Fermi paradox: Why hasn't someone obliterated the universe yet?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:49PM (2 children)
They forgot to put the "Danger! Do not touch!" sign on the big red button.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:24PM
They did, but it's red text on the red button because the joker engineer had just read Hitchhiker's Guide.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:22PM
Because they so rarely have existed so as to not have destroyed it.
Duh!
(Score: 5, Funny) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:49PM
Trump's only a year in. Give it another few weeks.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @05:08AM
Because they banished him [wikipedia.org] to Earth?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday April 06 2018, @06:46PM
The real Fermi paradox: Why hasn't someone obliterated the universe yet?
Maybe that was the Big Bang?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:03PM
It came to me in a vision.
http://www.warplife.com/jonathan-swift/books/the-frog/solution/rapture.html [warplife.com]
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 05 2018, @07:35PM
The Higgs Boson is actually comprised of three smaller particles, for want of better names: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Much like Schrödinger's cat, the mere act of observing them will take them from their present indeterminate state to one of certainty - zero or one, if you will - putting an end to the chaos and quantum superposition and finally decide if the universe will expand to infinite emptiness, or recollapse to a point, which it will then proceed to do in one Plank time.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:25PM (2 children)
So, what you are saying is there is a non-zero chance everything will end tomorrow? :)
(Score: 3, Funny) by tftp on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:33PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:51PM
Always, most likely for you personally, but also in decreasing order of likelihood also for all your friends and family, the planet, galaxy, universe and multiverse.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Thursday April 05 2018, @08:58PM
Come on people, tread lightly or the universe might go off. And whatever you do, don't cross the beams.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:02PM (1 child)
I mean, if this ends up being the big suck shouldn't it be called something appropriate?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday April 06 2018, @09:50AM
Like, "The Great Arkelseizure"? Involuntary bodily function, checks out. Hard to imagine in reverse, however.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:24PM (5 children)
This isn't even fiction, it's complete fucking nonsense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:39PM
Modern physics is indistinguishable from complete fucking nonsense... even before millennial physicists started assigning variable genders to the subatomic particles.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:56PM (3 children)
So, by that logic, all you have to do is build a computer to calculate exactly how nonsensical it is, with a fresh cup of really hot tea, and you'll be able to control the laws of physics.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 06 2018, @12:13AM (1 child)
I think we should just arrest the particle and strip it of its duties.
That or eject whomever wrote that garbage in the first place.
(Score: 4, Funny) by acid andy on Friday April 06 2018, @12:24AM
Maybe it's time to draw up a Constitution of Physics. That way anything undesirable the particle does in future would be unconstitutional. Unless it manages to pass an amendment.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 06 2018, @03:38PM
But, then it'll only give you a number like 42. We need to give it more restraints, so it doesn't come up with an nonsensical answer.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday April 05 2018, @09:49PM
.... Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Well, that's what Eccentrica Gallumbits said, anyway....
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:17PM (1 child)
"And they're at least 95% sure — a statistical measure of certainty"
that gives me the statistically certain feeling of warm and fuzzy with wee pee value of e/pi.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Friday April 06 2018, @12:02AM
Hell, lets run tests to see if they are right.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:47PM
So since it's supposed to be sudden and there is nowhere to run (or time to do so) this is isn't really all that high on my list of things to worry about. It's the end of the universe as we know it, and I feel fine ... That said if the second big bang goes off and there is no one around to hear or see it did it make a sound? I guess since nobody can hear us scream in space it might be sort of mute. I recon it's like the universe telling us all that it brought us into this universe, it can end our existence anytime it feels like it ... Which sort of puts things into the proper universal perspective.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday April 06 2018, @12:04AM
If there's a chance this could save us from the dreaded eternal heat death, then I say bring it on baby! Although, an explosion rather than a crunch suggests matter and energy would become even more sparsely distributed. I guess it would depend on how the physics of mass and gravity changed.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday April 06 2018, @01:22AM (1 child)
IIRC there are already three other ways that the universe might end suddenly and without warning. E.g. the branes that (perhaps) collided to get things started off could collide again. The false vacuum could collapse. I forget the details of the other one. Most of them don't have estimated times, however.
The thing is, they all depend on physics that is not now widely accepted. None of them are really considered impossible, or unreasonable, it's just they depend on things that there is insufficient evidence for. E.g., there's insufficient evidence that things were set in motion by the collision of two branes. I know of no reason to believe that *isn't* what set things off, but that's not a good reason to believe it *is* what set things off.
Similarly, there are hypotheses that the mass of the Higgs boson is metastable for one reason or another, but there's no evidence that this is correct.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday April 06 2018, @04:26PM
If its just one Higgs boson doing all that, it'll have to happen somewhere. It could be that point expands into a universe; prehaps it never takes much space in this one though. Space would just dilate locally.
And it to were to take space from the world we live in, the disruption would be limited by the speed of light. Not even QM gets around that, no matter how people try to interpret entanglement. The speed of light is subtle limit in the presence of superposition and uncertainty, but a real one.
(Score: 2) by jimbrooking on Friday April 06 2018, @03:07AM
The sooner, the better
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday April 06 2018, @04:40AM
> And they're at least 95% sure
Good, but they can pretend they know the day and the hour with no problems. If it happens outside the prediction nobody will be around to blame them.
Account abandoned.