According to research conducted by Dutch scientists, the universe is disintegrating much faster than previously estimated and could reach its end significantly earlier than the previous assessment of 10^1100 years. A team of researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands, including black hole expert Heino Falcke, quantum physicist Michael Wondrak, and mathematician Walter van Suijlekom, concluded that all stars in the universe will burn out in just 10^78 years, according to The Independent.
The researchers demonstrated that not only black holes but also other objects with gravitational fields, such as neutron stars, can "evaporate" in a process similar to Hawking radiation. This phenomenon, first proposed by physicist Stephen Hawking in 1975, describes how black holes can emit radiation while gradually evaporating into nothing.
"The final end of the universe is coming much earlier than expected, but fortunately it will still take a very long time," Falcke said, according to The Independent. The team's calculations show that neutron stars and stellar black holes take about the same time to disintegrate – approximately 10^67 years – despite neutron stars having weaker gravitational fields. "This was unexpected because black holes have stronger gravitational fields, which should cause them to 'evaporate' faster," the scientists noted.
According to Hawking's theory, particles can split into pairs of entangled particles at the edge of a black hole, with one being sucked in while the other escapes. The escaping particle forms part of what is known as Hawking radiation, and as more such particles escape over time, the black hole gradually disintegrates. The Radboud University team expanded this idea, suggesting that the Hawking radiation process theoretically applies to all objects with a gravitational field, not just black holes.
The basis for the new calculations is a reinterpretation of Hawking radiation. The calculations showed that an object's evaporation time depends solely on its density, a finding that led researchers to examine more familiar objects. They suggested that the moon and even a human body would take about 10^90 years to evaporate in a process similar to Hawking radiation. "It would take the moon about 10^90 years to 'evaporate' in a similar way, without external factors, but other processes would likely lead to its disappearance much sooner," they concluded.
"But black holes don't have a surface. They reabsorb some of their own radiation, which slows down the process," Wondrak said.
The 2023 research, published before peer review on arXiv, drew attention from the scientific community. After publication, the researchers received many questions about the duration of the evaporation process and were called upon by the scientific community to explain their results.
