{"id":599632,"date":"2026-04-12T18:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/599632\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:33:08","slug":"alarming-study-reveals-the-universe-will-end-much-much-sooner-than-previously-estimated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/599632\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarming study reveals the universe will end much, much sooner than previously estimated"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the end of the world as we know it \u2014 a lot sooner than we think.<\/p>\n

A team of researchers have drastically scaled back the going estimate of how long it will be until the universe ceases to exist.<\/p>\n

Previously, scientists believed it would be 10\u00b9\u00b9\u2070\u2070 years until the very last objects in the cosmos would disappear forever \u2014 that\u2019s a 1 followed by 1,100 zeroes, in layman\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

\"EarthA research team has theorized that the universe will end significantly sooner than previous estimates. NASA\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by a trio of researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands posits the real figure as closer to 10\u2077\u2078 years, or a 1 followed by just 78 zeroes, Science Aim<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, 10\u2077\u2078 years is a long, long, long time. But the difference between 10\u2077\u2078 years and 10\u00b9\u00b9\u2070\u2070 years is so enormous that it\u2019s unfathomable to the human mind.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the researchers\u2019 dramatic revision is Hawking radiation, a theory proposed by physicist Stephen Hawking in 1975 that black holes aren\u2019t completely black but rather very slowly leaking particles.<\/p>\n

Hawking explained the process in numerous books and talks over the years, wherein a pair of temporary particles form at the edge of black holes and rather than merging, one escapes while the other is sucked into the cosmic abyss.<\/p>\n

The surviving particle is then imbued with energy from the black hole itself.<\/p>\n

Hawking theorized that over \u201cextraordinarily long timescales,\u201d black holes lose mass and eventually evaporate entirely, contradicting Albert Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity, which states that black holes can only grow larger.<\/p>\n

\"IllustrationThe theory hinges on black holes and so-called Hawking radiation, which the new research says causes every object in the universe to eventually evaporate, not just black holes. Quality Stock Arts \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The same researchers behind the new study \u2014 black-hole expert Heino Falcke, quantum physicist Michael Wondrak and mathematician Walter van Suijlekom \u2014 claimed in a 2023 paper that Hawking radiation doesn\u2019t only affect black holes but can have the same impact on any object in space with a gravitational field.<\/p>\n

The new study builds upon the scientists\u2019 previous research, looking at 10 types of celestial objects to determine how long it would take for each of them to completely evaporate with Hawking-like radiation, based on their density.<\/p>\n

The most striking finding concerns white dwarf stars \u2014 the super-dense, cooling remnants of stars such as our sun that have burned through their fuel supply.<\/p>\n

According to the outlet, about 97% of stars in the Milky Way galaxy will one day become white dwarfs, which the new research states will vanish after a period of approximately 10\u2077\u2078 years.<\/p>\n

The universe is believed to be about 13.8 billion years old, or 10\u00b9\u2070 years, meaning the revised estimate of how long the universe will last surpasses its current age by a factor of 10\u2076\u2078, or a 1 followed by 68 zeroes, the outlet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the ultimate end of the universe comes much sooner than expected, but fortunately, it still takes a very long time,\u201d said lead author Heino Falcke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the end of the world as we know it \u2014 a lot sooner than we think. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[29764,49,48,8565,994,66,306,803,46454,883],"class_list":{"0":"post-599632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-apocalypse","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-milky-way","12":"tag-research","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-stars","16":"tag-stephen-hawking","17":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}