From: jimgoetz316@gmail.com   
      
   On Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 1:56:06 PM UTC-4, Ned Latham wrote:   
   > James Goetz wrote:   
   > >   
   > > Lord Kelvin's prediction of heat death indicates the eventual end   
   > > to star formation in the observable universe.   
   > >   
   > > Have any astrophysicists made any predictions for the endurance of   
   > > star formation in the observable universe?   
   > >   
   > > Or does anybody here want to take a crack at predicting it?   
   >   
   > It'll continiue forever.   
   >   
   > Despite what the proponemts of BBT say, there is no beginning, and   
   > there is no end.   
   >   
   > > [[Mod. note --   
   > > 1. This is really an astronomy question rather than a general physics   
   > >    question, so I have set the  Followup-To  header to point to our   
   > >    sister newsgroup   sci.astro.research  .   
   >   
   > It might seem so at first, but there's an aspect to the question that   
   > keeps it firmly in the area of basic physics. I have, accordingly,   
   > undone the Followup-To action.   
   >   
   > Entropy and gravity work antagonistically (so to speak). The one works   
   > to disperse energy/matter; the other to consolidate it/them.   
   >   
   > We can regard the universe as a closed system, but unlike the Second   
   > Law, we cannot ignore gravity.   
   >   
   > Ned   
      
   The Big Bang singularity and anybody's favorite cosmology with no   
   origin for gravity and thermodynamics are all highly speculative   
   cosmologies. My original question specified the observable universe,   
   so that excludes gravity and thermodynamics with no origin.   
      
   Since cosmologies with no origin for gravity and thermodynamics were   
   mentioned, I will mention that an actual infinite elapse of Planck times   
   is mathematically impossible. For example, the observable universe   
   might expand forever and likewise its Planck times might elapse forever,   
   but that would never equate an actual infinite elapse of Planck times in   
   the forever future. Similarly, no origin for gravity and thermodynamics   
   would indicate no origin for the elapse of Planck times and a past   
   actual infinite elapse of Planck times that is mathematically impossible.   
      
   One might argue that there is no actual elapse of Planck times while   
   appealing to eternalism, but eternalism is also highly speculative.   
      
   In any case, somebody at the sister newsgroup sci.astro.research cited   
   an excellent compilation of astrophysics speculation on the demise of   
   the observable universe by John Baez:   
   http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/end.html   
      
   "This means that all the stars will eventually burn out. The longest lived   
   are the red dwarf stars, the smallest stars capable of supporting fusion   
   today, with a mass about 0.08 times that of the Sun. These will run out   
   of hydrogen about 1013 years from now, and slowly cool."   
      
   I hope I finally figured out a good way to format posts for this group.   
      
   Jim   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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