Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Universe Closer To Heat Death Than Once Thought

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 26, @09:37AM
from the we're-doomed dept.
TapeCutter writes"In a paper soon to be published (PDF) in the Astrophysical Journal, Australian researchers have estimated the entropy of the universe is about 30 times higher than previous estimates. According to their research, super-massive black holes 'are the largest contributor to the entropy of the observable universe, contributing at least an order of magnitude more entropy than previously estimated.' For those of us who like their science in the form of a car analogy, Dr. Lineweaver compared their results to a car's gas tank. He states, 'It's a bit like looking at your gas gauge and saying "I thought I had half a gas tank, but I only have a quarter of a tank."'"Fortunately, that quarter of a tank will still get us as far as we need to go and then some.

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