New model of cosmic stickiness favors “Big Rip” demise of universe

So the Universe may end in a big rip where atoms are ripped apart.

For me sometimes theories like this on such a huge scale I find it hard to comprehend and get my tiny little head around.

The universe can be a very sticky place, but just how sticky is a matter of debate. That is because for decades cosmologists have had trouble reconciling the classic notion of viscosity based on the laws of thermodynamics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity. However, a team from Vanderbilt University has come up with a fundamentally new mathematical formulation of the problem that appears to bridge this long-standing gap.

The new math has some significant implications for the ultimate fate of the universe. It tends to favor one of the more radical scenarios that cosmologists have come up with known as the “Big Rip.” It may also shed new light on the basic nature of dark energy.

The new approach was developed by Assistant Professor of Mathematics Marcelo Disconzi in collaboration with physics professors Thomas Kephart and Robert Scherrer and is described in a paper published earlier this year in the journal Physical Review D.

“Marcelo has come up with a simpler and more elegant formulation that is mathematically sound and obeys all the applicable physical laws,” said Scherrer.

news.vanderbilt.edu...

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

BIG RIP to occur in approximately 22 billion years (according to the article and these experts).

Fewf, not to worry folks.

Good read, thanks for posting EnigmaAgent

It think this is the Heinz concept. Instead of the big bean bang that'll blow everyone away, it's more of a wet fart that only pushes stuff around..that makes up for the missing matter!

Big rip ? sounds like something I want on my tombstone...

I once had seen this documentary where they had this theory that there are big bangs within multiverse all the time. And that it just needs the right ingredients to grow to stable universe as we are in right now..

i guess we would be dead in nanoseconds before we even knew it. sounds like a plan xD

22 million years to discover this theory is wrong.

Think I'll hang about and see what happens

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

And there goes our White-dwarf.

Our Sun is classified as a G2V star (Yellow Dwarf Star). Based on studying multiple other similar Stars in various stages, it indicates a lifetime of around 10 billion years. It is believed that our Sun started by a nuclear fusion of Hydrogen atoms that are converted into Helium causing its energy and heat. As the heavier atom particles moves to the core with the Hydrogen burning around it, the Sun will gradually grow in size that will accelerate as the Hydrogen fuel becomes less. The Sun will become a Red Giant Star which will engulf most of our Solar System’s inner planets. Around a billion+ years from now our Sun will be getting to hot making it difficult for live on Earth. Near its end when the hydrogen fuel is exhausted, the Helium in the core will become unstable and fuse forming carbon (this will happen in relatively short time period). Once the Helium is exhausted it will become unstable again and will start to pulse violently a few times triggering the outer layers to be expelled as a planetary nebula causing havoc on/or rejecting the rest of the planets in our Solar System. It does not really matter the hypothesis, our Solar System will become a “dead zone”. The remaining White Dwarf will cool down and become a Black-dwarf over some trillions of years.

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

I like them models...

The great wonder...the forever unexplored...the void...solved...with a pen and a piece of paper and some pretty smart dudes.

I don't believe in the Big Rip. Expansion of space applies only on the largest cosmic scales, and is overcome by gravity and electromagnetism on smaller scales.

a reply to: wildespace
Something I always wondered RE expansion. Does it have to be expanding, or could everything in it just be shrinking? Would we be able to tell the difference?

Where did I put my extra-universal meter stick.

A slightly more on topic ?:

Some of you seem well smart with this stuff, so I don't know if this is a dumb one. How can we know what our sun will be like in some trillions of years, when the uni is 13.7 Billion old and will rip big in 22 Billion?

originally posted by: ISawItFirst
a reply to: wildespace
Something I always wondered RE expansion. Does it have to be expanding, or could everything in it just be shrinking? Would we be able to tell the difference?

I think that if everything in the universe were shrinking, this would create a greater and greater density of matter, and we'd eventually end up in one universal black hole.

How can we know what our sun will be like in some trillions of years, when the uni is 13.7 Billion old and will rip big in 22 Billion?

Well, since the Sun will end up being a white dwarf in approx 5 billion years, what you'll have is basically a very hot but inert chunk of matter that will (according to calculations) cool very slowly over those trillions of years.

The only way something could happen to our Sun's remnant is if it collides with, or comes very near to, another star or white dwarf, causing matter to be accreted by either object and possibly resulting in a supernova or even a new star being formed.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

originally posted by: roadgravel
The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

But is the universe an isolated system?

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: roadgravel
The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

But is the universe an isolated system?

If not then doesn't that support the multiverse theory. If so, is there a connection between them.

Some of these theories are more along the lines of a wishful guess.

originally posted by: wildespace
I don't believe in the Big Rip. Expansion of space applies only on the largest cosmic scales, and is overcome by gravity and electromagnetism on smaller scales.

But is it a matter of faith ?

I admit I haven't gone through the source...but surely it has some "math" behind it, no ? Are you claiming the math is wrong ?

a reply to: marioonthefly

Math on this level is indistinguishable from faith. It's easier to use words, but absolutes like right and wrong get tricky, there are more accurate translations.

Was kind of the point of my questions. Which models and theories fit and which don't. I'm not up on the life cycles of celestial bodies, but it is interesting.

No need to worry about the big rip, we'll be sucked into the black hole 4 billion years from now. But then again, if astronomers think that we'll be sucked into the black hole 4 billion years from now how can earth still be here to be apart of the big rip. They need to get their stories straight.

You are here.

Are you serious?

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

Sounds to me like a Big Rip(off) of the term 'Big Bang', or a play on the initals R.I.P. When time and space collapse it won't be in a rip, but in a W.H.I.M.P.E.R. (Whole Hologram Implosion Mass Production Entropy Route).