doomsday talk

What if the Super Bowl was the last NFL game we will ever see? What if the lock out isn't settled by October 21st? What about people who love to throw elaborate Halloween parties? Should they hold them early?

This guy should have been considerate and moved the date to sometime in November.

What not? It's what created everything.
The day the sun goes supernova and wipes out half the solar system is nothing more than a nuclear event.

I'm open to any and all beer questions.

What would the most interesting man do for doomsday?

A nuclear or atomic reaction did not create everything. The presumed "Big Bang" is a singularity representing the creation of everything. There was nothing; then there was the Big Bang which produced all the matter/energy of the Universe. The beginning of everything. It was not a nuclear reaction.

The Sun possesses insufficient matter to ever go supernova. When the Sun's hydrogen core is consumed, the Sun will expand into a red-giant star - in the process incinerating the Earth, but not "destroying its matter - then shed its gaseous envelope, and dwindle down to a white-dwarf star. Rather unexciting as stars go.

But, even when larger stars do go supernova, they do not "consume and obliterate all matter" or even most of their own matter. In fact it is in the process of a massive star going supernova that many chemical elements are created, including all elements heavier than iron, . . . and then flung into the Universe.

When super-massive stars go hypernova they also toss off lots of matter, . . . but then create a black hole where there was once the star. And the new black hole emits two fantastical beams of gamma rays which kill anything in their path for thousands of light years. Quite exciting as stars go!

The general consensus as to the end of everything: the Universe will persist in expanding, . . . and cooling over time. Eventually all the stars will end one way or another, . . . until the last ones blink out altogether. And the Universe continues to expand and cool and darken into a collection of ever-colder solid bits of matter. Rather unexciting as Universes go.

Good point, with "consume and obliterate all matter" being the key phrase. Something may blow up, but that does not mean all matter has been consumed or obliterated, it has just been altered from its original state.

It really depends on the amount of dark energy/matter. If there is enough then the Universe stops expanding and starts contracting. Eventually, it all compresses into a singularity once again. Or, not ...

If anyone believes that our scientists have any clue what's really going to happen then you are giving them way too much credit. Our knowledge is increasing but the more we learn the more we realize how little we actually do know.

That's my vote. We're just all stuck in an endless repetitive loop.

Well depending upon who you listen to there a few thoughts about the universe out there.

If the universe keeps expanding, at some point it will run out of matter to play with and then poof, no more expansion.

In order for the universe to contract, a gravatational attractant will have to be somewhere in the universe. Otherwise the universe won't have anything to go back to.

Of course either of the above projections are soley dependant upon the shape of the universe. Current theory states the universe goes on forever in every direction. If so, DD's theory is the most likely.

If the universe is either elliptical or circular, then Arci's, theory could come into play. Provided a nice strong gravatational force comes into being. Of course, if one looks back to the 1970's when there were 3 theories of how the universe was created. Two of those come into play: our old favorite, the big bang and the expansion and contraction theory. (the way this one was nuked, it stated that the universe was contracting)

Also Mr. sun may swallow the Earth or just burn it to a crisp. It all depends upon gravity, if the Earth gets a nice push, it's orbit will expand leaving a rather charred but whole planet. If not, it's burn baby burn and Earth get blowed up.

DD, after the sun does the shrinkage thingy it does have a nice long retirement ahead of it. The sun will gradually cool off and die, however it will take a few billion years of being a white dwarf before hand.

Current thinking in theoretical physics is leading many to believe there are a number (perhaps an infinite number) of parellel universes. I take comfort in knowing that our universe's doomsday does not necessarily mean the end to all universes.

This particular theory was played out in the media waaay back in the 1980's. Ever hear of a comic book called the Micronauts??linky