The Future of Astronomy

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As the universe keeps expanding, since there aren't other galaxies coming toward us anymore, you don't get all this new material thrown into the galaxy. So you stop forming stars. You use up all the hydrogen in our galaxy with making stars. Then those stars die and fade out. And then so eventually you have a bunch of black holes. It'll be a lonely little island universe unless we were able to successfully send them records. But nobody will be able to check this stuff from first principles.

Cosmologists are always talking excitedly about the Big Bang and all the cool stuff that happened in the 14 billion years between then and now. But what about the future? We don't know for sure, but we know enough about the laws of physics to sketch out several plausible scenarios for what the future of our universe will hold. Katie Mack is a cosmologist who is writing a book about the end of the universe. We talk about the possibilities of a Big Crunch (and potential Big Bounce), a gentle cooling off where the universe gradually grows silent, and of course the prospect of a dramatic phase transition, otherwise known as the "bubble of quantum death." Which would make a great name for a band, I think we can all agree.

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Katherine (Katie) Mack received her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, where her research centers on theoretical cosmology, including dark matter and black holes. She is also a member of NCSU’s Leadership in Public Science Cluster. Her upcoming book, The End of Everything, will be published in 2020.

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