Australian researchers have measured the amount of entropy that exists now in the Universe. They found that the Universe has much less energy available than had been previously measured. Are they right? Is the Universe aging faster?





The authors of the research are Charles “Charley” H. Lineweaver , a professor from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Australian National University ( ANU ), and Chas A. Egan, Ph.D. student at ANU.Their articlewill be published in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal Their analysis of the entropy within the Universe found that it is about 30 times higher than other projections had previously measured. In other words, according to these researchers, the Universe has a thirty times higher entropy number than what was earlier calculated.Entropy is a measure of energy expenditure of any system, such as the Universe. The Universe began with a low entropy number (low disorder).However, as the Universe gets older its entropy number gets higher (higher disorder) as it expends more energy. Thus, the higher entropy number (the more entropy), the more energy has been expended.Entropy is calculated to find out how efficient a system is, such as an engine or a Universe, and how quickly the system will run down.Energy is continually expended in the Universe, and the more energy that has been expended in the past, the less energy that is available in the future.In fact, Egan stated, “The universe started out in a low entropy state and, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy has been increasing ever since. This is important because the amount of energy available to life in the universe, including terrestrial life, depends on the entropy of the universe.”Page two continues.Egan adds,[ScienceAlert.com.au: “ Black holes need high upkeep ”]The measurements by Lineweaver and Egan are based largely on the number of the black holes in the Universe, along with their masses.Black holes are considered to contribute the most to entropy. However, other matter of the observable Universe was also taken into consideration with respect to calculating entropy in our 13.7 billion-year-old Universe.Considering everything, black holes are vastly more important to figuring out entropy in the Universe.Egan states,He adds,[ScienceAlert.com.au]Dr. Lineweaver compared their results to a car’s gas tank. He states,[News.com.au: “ Universe heading towards 'heat death' ”]Page three continues.However, their estimate is only a tentative measure at the moment. Lineweaver stated,Currently, Lineweaver and Egan are looking into a measurement on how much longer the Universe will be able to support life.However, they admit that this figure will be difficult to come up with because astronomers are unsure about how much energy was available at the beginning of the Big Bang, the start of our Universe.The abstract to their paper (“ A Larger Estimate of the Entropy of the Universe ”) is found on the ArXiv.org website.The researchers used mass-function measurements from supermassive black holes (SMBHs). They stated,They conclude in the abstract,However longer the Universe has left to support life, its end will come about like this analogy by Dr. Lineweaver.He states,[News.com.au]