Study Shows the Universe Is Closer to the End Than Expected by
Brian Thomas, M.S. * Every known system degenerates. Metal
rusts, food rots, and flowers wither. Even something as large as
the universe will eventually run down. How much usable and
still-ordered energy remains in the universe? Australian
researchers have generated a new estimate, one that includes the
energy-destroying effects of “supermassive black holes.” Their
computations indicate that the universe is perhaps 30 times more
run down than similar estimates published just last year. After
adding in “the contributions of black holes 100 times larger
than those considered in previous budgets,” co-authors Chas Egan
and Charles Lineweaver reported in the Astrophysical Journal
that the universe is at least an order of magnitude more run
down than secular astronomers once thought.1 The largest
contributor by far to universal entropy (a measure of usable
energy) is generated by supermassive black holes, according to
the published study. Evidence of th