Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to scientists studying the expansion of universe. - Polidicks

[QUOTE][I]"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice..." [URL="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html#footnote"]*[/URL]What will be the final destiny of the Universe? Probably it will end in ice, if we are to believe this year's Nobel Laureates in Physics. They have studied several dozen exploding stars, called supernovae, and discovered that the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. The discovery came as a complete [/I] [I]surprise even to the Laureates themselves. [/I] In 1998, cosmology was shaken at its foundations as two research teams presented their findings. Headed by [B]Saul Perlmutter[/B], one of the teams had set to work in 1988. [B]Brian Schmidt [/B]headed another team, launched at the end of 1994, where[B] Adam Riess[/B] was to play a crucial role. The research teams raced to map the Universe by locating the most distant supernovae. More sophisticated telescopes on the ground and in space, as well as more powerful computers and new digital imaging sensors (CCD, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009), opened the possibility in the 1990s to add more pieces to the cosmological puzzle. The teams used a particular kind of supernova, called type Ia supernova. It is an explosion of an old compact star that is as heavy as the Sun but as small as the Earth. A single such supernova can emit as much light as a whole galaxy. All in all, the two research teams found over 50 distant supernovae whose light was weaker than expected - this was a sign that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating. The potential pitfalls had been numerous, and the scientists found reassurance in the fact that both groups had reached the same astonishing conclusion. For almost a century, the Universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. However, the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the Universe will end in ice. The acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, but what that dark energy is remains an enigma - perhaps the greatest in physics today. What is known is that dark energy constitutes about three quarters of the Universe. Therefore the findings of the 2011 Nobel Laureates in Physics have helped to unveil a Universe that to a large extent is unknown to science. And everything is possible again.[/QUOTE] [URL="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html"]http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2011/press.html [/URL]Some scientists had the idea that the universe was slowing down and perhaps one day many billions of years into the future even shrink. But these scientists have found out that it's not the case at all. It's seems that the universe will after all die very large and cold. It's very nice to see some astrophysicists win the Nobel prize. It somehow seems more comprehensible than tiny particles behaving like in weird ways. More Nobel Prize winner will be announced throughout the week. Yesterday the Nobel Prize for medicine went to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann "for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity" and Ralph M. Steinman "for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity". Although Ralph died before the message that he had won the prize reached him.

Yeah I saw some discovery thing about the end of the universe, it just gets colder and darker until there is no ambient light left

[QUOTE=Swebonny;32626795]and Ralph M. Steinman "for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity". Although Ralph died before the message that he had won the prize reached him.[/QUOTE] :c

Thank you for making reality even cooler.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;32626910]:c[/QUOTE] Yeah it's horrible, and what makes it even worse was that he joked about his cancer, saying that he couldn't die now because else he would miss the Nobel prize :/

Fuck yeah, Professor Saul Perlmutter teaches at my school.

The thought of the universe dying is fucking terrifying to me.

Even though it was about time, they received it within "Nobel-price-standard-time".

It's really funny because at our school because one of the perks of being a Nobel Laureate is free parking. [IMG]http://d2o7bfz2il9cb7.cloudfront.net/main-qimg-a388af7882fc7be1e55b0416786cc231[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.rhinocarhire.com/getattachment/Car-Parking/Airport-Car-Parking-Blog/Science-behind-parking/Nl-parking-space.bmp.aspx?width=429&height=218[/IMG]

[QUOTE=BenJammin';32633693]The thought of the universe dying is fucking terrifying to me.[/QUOTE] Why not fear your own death yourself? your life compared to the universes is a tiny particle of nothing.

[QUOTE=DrBreen;32635552]Why not fear your own death yourself? your life compared to the universes is a tiny particle of nothing.[/QUOTE] It doesn't matter if we don't live to see the End. It's the mere concept of the universe dying that terrifies people. If the scenario were the usual "dead planet/depleted resources/war-torn Earth" and Humans developed space-travel, the conclusion would be that Humanity neatly survives by colonizing other planets and systems. However, in this case, what is implied is that all life would cease to be, no matter how "prepared" for such a scenario anything is. The complete, irreversible, inescapable death of everything is not something a sentient being could get comfortable with...

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32639123]It doesn't matter if we don't live to see the End. It's the mere concept of the universe dying that terrifies people. If the scenario were the usual "dead planet/depleted resources/war-torn Earth" and Humans developed space-travel, the conclusion would be that Humanity neatly survives by colonizing other planets and systems. However, in this case, what is implied is that all life would cease to be, no matter how "prepared" for such a scenario anything is. The complete, irreversible, inescapable death of everything is not something a sentient being could get comfortable with...[/QUOTE] And it would also happen billions of years from now. there is no way humans would be alive for that long.

[QUOTE=EcksDee;32641756]And it would also happen billions of years from now. there is no way humans would be alive for that long.[/QUOTE] Again: "It doesn't matter if we don't live to see the End. It's the mere concept of the universe dying that terrifies people." It truly doesn't matter WHEN a person lives or IF Humanity survives at all. Just as if one ponders over Death and cannot fathom the idea of themselves ceasing to exist at one point, trying to think about the Universe dying, giving nothing in it the slightest chance of survival is equally difficult to comprehend. If you were, hypothetically, granted immortality (under very specific circumstances that should the last life-form in the Universe, besides you, die, so will you), you'd be fucking terrified at the thought of being forced to die anyway at one point. The idea that if this is true, everything here and out there is living on borrowed time and was doomed from the moment the Universe "began", whenever/however that was. But hey, we might just have the luxury of letting our species kill itself with a ridiculous war and "not be around to feel anything", right? >.>

[QUOTE=BenJammin';32633693]The thought of the universe dying is fucking terrifying to me.[/QUOTE] it's okay, we'll be out of it when it happens we'll be transdimensional super saiyans in that time

[QUOTE=Lord of Ears;32642923]it's okay, we'll be out of it when it happens we'll be transdimensional super saiyans in that time[/QUOTE] Or dead

[QUOTE=Lord of Ears;32642923]it's okay, we'll be out of it when it happens we'll be transdimensional super saiyans in that time[/QUOTE]You say that like us humans will ever get our heads out of our own asses and work together. lol.

[QUOTE=MightyMax;32643433]You say that like us humans will ever get our heads out of our own asses and work together. lol.[/QUOTE] Sounds about as likely as a bunch of dudes, tripping on some ancient form of LSD, successfully convincing the masses that there is an omnipotent entity up in the Heavens, who shows it's love by making us wage war on ourselves and whose absolute 'wisdom' is contained within a book... Oh, wait... :tinfoil:

[QUOTE=MightyMax;32643433]You say that like us humans will ever get our heads out of our own asses and work together. lol.[/QUOTE] if we've come this far in 12,000 years, then how far do you think we'll go in a billion years food for thought

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32639123]It doesn't matter if we don't live to see the End. It's the mere concept of the universe dying that terrifies people. If the scenario were the usual "dead planet/depleted resources/war-torn Earth" and Humans developed space-travel, the conclusion would be that Humanity neatly survives by colonizing other planets and systems. However, in this case, what is implied is that all life would cease to be, no matter how "prepared" for such a scenario anything is. The complete, irreversible, inescapable death of everything is not something a sentient being could get comfortable with...[/QUOTE] yeah but its anywhere between 10^32 and 10^41 years from now before protons start to decay it's a really really long time [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] if protons don't decay it'll be 10^1500 years before everything decays into iron between 10^10^26 and 10^10^76 years for all matter to be sucked into black holes i mean its so huge that its impossible for me to give a shit

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32639123]It doesn't matter if we don't live to see the End. It's the mere concept of the universe dying that terrifies people. If the scenario were the usual "dead planet/depleted resources/war-torn Earth" and Humans developed space-travel, the conclusion would be that Humanity neatly survives by colonizing other planets and systems. However, in this case, what is implied is that all life would cease to be, no matter how "prepared" for such a scenario anything is. The complete, irreversible, inescapable death of everything is not something a sentient being could get comfortable with...[/QUOTE] Unless you get to another universe.

My physics teacher says he taught Adam Reiss, which is pretty damn rad.