back to article Boffins take the temperature of the cosmos

The universe is cold and getting colder, according to work by an international team of scientists working with CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array near the NSW town of Narrabri. The group has pinned the average temperature of the universe at 2.73 Kelvin – not far above absolute zero – but more impressively, it’s also …

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  1. jake Silver badge

    So the heat-death of the Universe is ~8.19 billion years from now?

    Somehow, I doubt it. Entropy will win over the long-haul, mind, but somehow I suspect it'll take a trifle longer than that given that we're capable of seeing energy from 23.5 billion light-years away. And stretching the distance on a regular basis.

    Not that it really matters to us puny humans, mind ;-)

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: So the heat-death of the Universe is ~8.19 billion years from now?

      Not the heat-death of the univers.

      It's just the temperature of the background radiation that drops (actually should be doing that exponentially I reckon).

      You still have a hundred billion years or so until the last galaxy disappears over the horizon and the universe looks just like a big empty room from any vantage point. And then you have to wait even longer until everything has decayed and finds itself on the light cone (if that ever happens). In these strange aeons, even time will die... because there aren't any clocks any longer. An interesting fate.

    2. User McUser
      Boffin

      Re: So the heat-death of the Universe is ~8.19 billion years from now?

      "we're capable of seeing energy from 23.5 billion light-years away"

      The universe is "only" 13.77 billion years old so it is not possible for anything further away than 13.77 billion light-years to be detectable simply because the light/energy can't have gotten here yet.

      As for the "death" of the universe, given the Eddington number (10^80 protons) and the proton half-life (10^32 years) my math says we have 2.67*10^34 years before the last proton evaporates back into energy. But I could be wrong.

      1. jake Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: So the heat-death of the Universe is ~8.19 billion years from now?

        I wrote: "we're capable of seeing energy from 23.5 billion light-years away"

        You replied: "The universe is "only" 13.77 billion years old so it is not possible for anything further away than 13.77 billion light-years to be detectable simply because the light/energy can't have gotten here yet."

        Yeah, kinda. But not quite. Look up "observable universe" and "expansion of space". It might surprise you.

        Beer, because the math(s) and the shear wonder requires same :-)

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    "The cooling is predicted by the big bang theory"

    Nice to hear that TV gets it right for once.

    1. The last doughnut

      Big Bang Theory has the advantage of actually being funny. Please take note.

      1. Martin Budden Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Big Bang Theory has the disadvantage of being about some miserable blokes being miserable. Nothing funny about that.

    2. John Angelico
      Joke

      Better cite the episode...

      ...or some troll will reject it for lack of peer review.

  3. Graham 24

    [Pul / Qua] sar

    "the radiation received from a pulsar"

    "Radio waves from this quasar "

    So, is it a pulsar or a quasar?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: [Pul / Qua] sar

      We are talking DISTANCE, man. So it's bound to be a Quasar.

      Also:

      1) Pull up Google in the browser

      2) "PKS 1830-211"

      3) ????

      4) http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0201551 : PKS 1830-211: A Face-On Spiral Galaxy Lens

      We present new Hubble Space Telescope images of the gravitational lens PKS 1830-211, which allow us to characterize the lens galaxy and update the determination of the Hubble constant from this system. The I-band image shows that the lens galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy with clearly delineated spiral arms. The southwestern image of the background quasar passes through one of the spiral arms, explaining the previous detections of large quantities of molecular gas and dust in front of this image. The lens galaxy photometry is consistent with the Tully-Fisher relation, suggesting the lens galaxy is a typical spiral galaxy for its redshift. The lens galaxy position, which was the main source of uncertainty in previous attempts to determine H_0, is now known precisely. Given the current time delay measurement and assuming the lens galaxy has an isothermal mass distribution, we compute H_0 = 44 +/- 9 km/s/Mpc for an Omega_m = 0.3 flat cosmological model. We describe some possible systematic errors and how to reduce them. We also discuss the possibility raised by Courbin et al. (2002), that what we have identified as a single lens galaxy is actually a foreground star and two separate galaxies.

      Your Face When it's actually a gravitational lens.

  4. Silverburn
    Holmes

    A query arises...

    ...is the restaurant at the end of the universe's location measured in distance or time?

    And if entropy wins, does this mean my steak will be served rare?

    Enquiring minds must know.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: A query arises...

      Neither distance nor time. Rather, entertaining speculation.

      Also known as "science fiction". HTH, HAND.

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    Meanwhile at the nearby Narrabri Pub....

    Right Bruce, set the beer fridge to 2.73 Kelvin.

    That'll get these slabs nice and cold.

    1. Dr. G. Freeman
      Pint

      Re: Meanwhile at the nearby Narrabri Pub....

      Liquid Helium, 4 Kelvin. Takes about 10 seconds of being right next to the dewar(opened) to be nice and cold. Put in dewar for a second for beer lollies.

      That's for Tennents, your time may vary for other lagers. Kingfishers slightly shorter, Special Brew slightly longer.

      /valuable scientific boffinry from the NMR lab.

  6. Annihilator
    Boffin

    CMBR

    Isn't this the same as just measuring the cosmic microwave background radiation? Which coincidentally is the same temperature?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. hugo tyson
    IT Angle

    2.73K

    Spooooooky. The average temperature of the whole universe is (to 3 S.F..) exactly one percent of the freezing point of water. More proof that we're in a big simulation with a lazy sysadmin? I'll get me tinfoil hat....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Universal cooling? Cue Lewis...

    Talking of temperature. Has Lewis missed this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130123133612.htm

  9. Mombasa69

    I hope it isn't tax payers cash being wasted on this utter pointless cr@p!

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Gb2 mombasa

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