As many think about the end of the world, seeing how 2020 has gone so far, scientists who theorize about the death of the universe may think they know how it will all end: with some sort of of explosion we’ve never seen before.
The end of the universe will apparently be marked by a newly theorized type of supernova, thanks to so-called black dwarfs, according to a new paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
As the universe slowly dies, and swings in a cold, dormant state, with temperatures everywhere at absolutely zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius, -459.67 Fahrenheit), these black dwarfs will participate in some of the slowest burning explosions that ‘ t you are conceivable.
As stars die, they can, depending on their size and composition, explode into supernovae. But smaller stars, which do not have the necessary heavy elements to produce nuclear fusion in their nuclei, turn into burnt-out houses known as white dwarfs.
Also on rt.com
White dwarf stars are a major source of living carbon in the universe, new study finds
Over the course of trillions of years, these white dwarfs eventually disappear into frozen, completely dead objects known as black dwarfs, who may prove to be the last survivors of our universe and will eventually be the ones who ‘shed the light’ at the end of everything.
These theorized black dwarf supernovae would be the end result of a process known as pycnonuclear fusion, in which, by quantum physics, the atomic nuclei in objects were crushed closer together than would normally be, and eventually all elements in iron turns.
“These reactions are taking an insanely long time,” said study author Matt Caplan, a theoretical physicist at Illinois State University. “You could wait a million years and not see a fusion reaction in a black dwarf.”
To put things in perspective, the nuclear meltdown of the sun takes about 10 ^ 38 protons per second, while the conversion of a black dwarf to iron by pycnonuclear fusion would take between 10 ^ 1,100 and 10 ^ 32,000 years (those zeros written would take the equivalent of up to a full chapter of a good book).
Also on rt.com
Mysterious deep space burst REPEATING with power of millions of sentences every 157 days is FURTHER RIGHT
These slowly boiling iron black dwarfs would then be crushed by their own immense mass, in an erupting collapse, which in turn would emit an imposition, launching the surface layers out of the atmosphere.
A similar process takes place in larger stars that exist today, and activates what is known as a nuclear collapse supernova.
However, the black dwarf version would be very rare, and would only occur in black dwarf stars with between 1.16 and 1.35 the mass of the sun. These black dwarfs are made up of stars that are six to 10 times the mass of the Sun, a group that makes up about one percent of all the stars in the universe.
The researchers estimate that there will be a billion trillion (10 ^ 21) of these supernovae for the latter, although there will more than likely be none or anything to witness the event.
Do you think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
