Ammon News - Scientists have discovered that the universe is decaying much faster than they thought, and have pinpointed exactly when it will perish.

A team of researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands determined that all the stars in the universe will go dark in one quinvigintillion years. That's a one followed by 78 zeros.

But this is a much shorter amount of time than the previous prediction of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, or a one followed by 1,100 zeros.

The process they believe is driving the death of the universe is related to Hawking radiation, where black holes emit radiation as they gradually 'evaporate' into nothing.

This was thought to be a phenomenon exclusive to black holes, but the researchers showed that things like neutron stars and white dwarfs can also evaporate similarly to black holes.

Both neutron stars and white dwarfs are the final stage of a star's life cycle. Massive stars explode into supernovas and then collapse into neutron stars, whereas smaller stars like our sun devolve into white dwarfs.

These 'dead' stars can persist for an extremely long time. But according to the researchers, they gradually dissipate and explode once they become too unstable.

In other words, knowing how long it takes for a neutron star or a white dwarf to die helps scientists understand the maximum lifespan of the universe, because these will be the last stars to die out. Daily Mail