Cosmology - The End of the Universe (Part I)

OPENING QUESTIONS: Please jot down as many bits of information that you recall from that amazing/confusing/mind-bending? video we saw about the End of the Universe.

OBJECTIVE:  I will review "The Last Question" during today's class.

I will work with my team to work through the Cosmology Clues displayed throughout the class during today's class.

WORDS FOR TODAY:

  • Planck Time (10-43 sec after the Big Bang)
  • CMBR ("Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation")

TIMELINE:

RADIATION ERA:

        • 10-43 sec: Planck Time- The farthest back in time we think we'll ever be able to describe with science & math asdf

        • 10-32 sec: Inflation- The Universe expands *suddenly* faster than the speed of light (still too hot for light) sdf

        • 10-6 sec: Fundamental particles form(but still too hot for light) fs

        • 380,000 years: The Universe cools off enough for electrons to get captured to form complete hydrogen and helium atoms. (finally 'cool' enough for light to shine!) s

         

STAR ERA:

        • 1 billion (109 years) First Stars Form

        • 13.8 billion (~1010 years) years ABB (After the Big Bang) = NOW!

        • 100 Trillion Years (1014 years) ABB = last read dwarf stars die

DEGENERATE ERA: (1014 years ~ 1040 years

    • White Dwarfs Die (1014 years ~ 1020 years)
    • Black Holes Survive
    • Black Dwarfs Appear
    • Black Dwarfs decay (1030 years ~ 1040 years)
    • Neutron Stars Decay (1032 years ~ 1040 years)

BLACK HOLE ERA: (1040 years ~ 10100 years)

        • No Stars remain
        • White Dwarfs are gone
        • Black Dwarfs have evaporated
        • Neutron Stars have evaporated
        • Black Holes Remain.

THE DARK ERA: (10100 years ∞ years)

        • The Universe continues to expand
        • The Universe continues to 'cool' getting every closer to absolute zero but never quite getting there
        • CMBR continues to 'cool' and stretch into longer and longer radio wavelengths
        • THIS is the time scale explored at the end of The Last Question

WORK O' THE DAY: 

Once Upon A Proton, questions? comments? concerns?

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ALL of those future timeline ERAs are highly speculative.

They only exist if the Universe continues to expand.

There are several other theories that depend entirely on HOW the Universe is expanding. We'll do a challenge to help you learn about those 4 different time periods.

Please explore those challenges with your Team!

    1. Identify the terms we use to identify each of those 4 scenarios for the End of the Universe
    2. Identify the properties for each of those scenarios
    3. Identify the space/time geometry for those scenarios
    4. Identify the final outcome for each of those scenarios.