When heat death finally arrives

Let's say the universe has finally arrived at a total, 100% heat death. What happens to the earth? Does it still retain it's basic shape? Or does all the matter just break apart and spread apart from each other? After all, atoms should no longer be able to bond with each other, right? Or will gravity keep most planets, burned out stars, rocks, etc., together as they were?

Also...will the expansion of the universe continue infinitely?

Originally posted by @vivify
Let's say the universe has finally arrived at a total, 100% heat death. What happens to the earth? Does it still retain it's basic shape? Or does all the matter just break apart and spread apart from each other? After all, atoms should no longer be able to bond with each other, right? Or will gravity keep most planets, burned out stars, rocks, etc., together as they were?

Also...will the expansion of the universe continue infinitely?

I have no way of knowing, but I'm leaning to the "break apart and spread apart from each other" theory. It would take a lot of force to keep this mass of stuff together.

To be clear, when I mentioned the shape of "earth", I mean any planet. Obviously, it won't last past the end of the sun's life cycle.

Originally posted by @vivify
To be clear, when I mentioned the shape of "earth", I mean any planet. Obviously, it won't last past the end of the sun's life cycle.

If it happens entire galaxies will live out their life spans, probably trillions of years so Earth will kick the bucket around 5 ish billion years from now so you can write off the heat death as a problem for Earth since it will be gone, the sun will be gone, the Milky way will be gone and new stuff making new galaxies will be gone. And every year the whole universe keeps expanding faster than the speed of light so our neck of the woods will become more and more isolated from the rest of the universe long before any heat death. If new life forms come about on some new planet around a new star around a new galaxy, that could be 50 billion years from now and THAT planet will go through it's life cycle without getting close to the heat death, if it is reality in the first place.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
If it happens entire galaxies will live out their life spans, probably trillions of years so Earth will kick the bucket around 5 ish billion years from now so you can write off the heat death as a problem for Earth since it will be gone, the sun will be gone, the Milky way will be gone and new stuff making new galaxies will be gone. And every year the whol ...[text shortened]... gh it's life cycle without getting close to the heat death, if it is reality in the first place.

Earth since it will be gone, the sun will be gone, the Milky way will be gone


Does this mean Duchess will be gone too? 😀

Originally posted by @vivify
Let's say the universe has finally arrived at a total, 100% heat death. What happens to the earth? Does it still retain it's basic shape? Or does all the matter just break apart and spread apart from each other? After all, atoms should no longer be able to bond with each other, right? Or will gravity keep most planets, burned out stars, rocks, etc., together as they were?

Also...will the expansion of the universe continue infinitely?

Why would heat death cause gravity to stop working?

Originally posted by @vivify
Let's say the universe has finally arrived at a total, 100% heat death.

I don't understand - heat death?
Can you provide an explanation? Or perhaps a link?

As I see it: Universe has survived the last heat death, so why worry about the next one, if there even will be one next?
As the Universe isn't living entity, it cannot experience death. The Universe just continues. Or not.

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
I don't understand - heat death?
Can you provide an explanation? Or perhaps a link?

As I see it: Universe has survived the last heat death, so why worry about the next one, if there even will be one next?
As the Universe isn't living entity, it cannot experience death. The Universe just continues. Or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

Originally posted by @vivify
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

Alright, good link.

I found another link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_from_Big_Bang_to_Heat_Death
And this says
"The heat death will occur in 10^1000 years, if protons decay." (not trillion of years)
and this proton decay is highly uncertain. That is if you believe in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_decay

So the heat death scenario is just one of many. Not to forget the freeze death scenario, Big Crunch scenario, and some others scenarios, one not mor certain than others...

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
Alright, good link.

I found another link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_from_Big_Bang_to_Heat_Death
And this says
"The heat death will occur in 10^1000 years, if protons decay." (not trillion of years)
and this proton decay is highly uncertain. That is if you believe in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_decay

So the heat ...[text shortened]... ath scenario, Big Crunch scenario, and some others scenarios, one not mor certain than others...

I just picked a number that could include such things as the death of an entire galaxy. I knew the real number was much greater. Trillion is a bit easier to type than quintillion quintillion quintillion, etc., etc., and so forth😉

I think whatever fate for the universe, it will happen far sooner than entropy going flat.

Originally posted by @sonhouse
I just picked a number that could include such things as the death of an entire galaxy. I knew the real number was much greater. Trillion is a bit easier to type than quintillion quintillion quintillion, etc., etc., and so forth😉

I think whatever fate for the universe, it will happen far sooner than entropy going flat.

Let's just sit and wait for the ultimate destiny for our Universe.
Will it die of heat or will it just freeze, soon we will know.

Originally posted by @joe-shmo
Why would heat death cause gravity to stop working?

It would not stop working as such, but as all matter would be evenly dispersed, the effect of gravity would be equi-directional and therefore static.

Originally posted by @moonbus
It would not stop working as such, but as all matter would be evenly dispersed, the effect of gravity would be equi-directional and therefore static.

I don't know if that is even theoretically possible. Still, the timeline for all that is greater than the present age of the universe and literally hundreds of trillions of years and much more so whatever is destined to happen to the universe in that far future, the present universe will be thoroughly cooked long before that since at it's present expansion rate the bits of the universe we could theoretically see will grow smaller and smaller with smaller and smaller number of galaxies visible till only what is left of our galaxy will be the ONLY thing visible so some future life form will have a very different view of what the universe actually is and they will be unable to build up any kind of picture of the universe other than seeing the one galaxy so they would inevitably think that's all there is. Since they won't have access to large dimensions of space and therefore to be able to get a timeline of star births and deaths and galaxy formation and galaxy dissolution, there will be only the one galaxy to make inferences about.

Originally posted by @moonbus
It would not stop working as such, but as all matter would be evenly dispersed, the effect of gravity would be equi-directional and therefore static.

I still don't understand how the matter would be evenly dispersed, as if gravity wouldn't be there anymore.
Even if the atomic nuclei isn't holding together anymore, of some reason, gravity would anyway bring particles with mass together in lumps.

Originally posted by @fabianfnas
I still don't understand how the matter would be evenly dispersed, as if gravity wouldn't be there anymore.
Even if the atomic nuclei isn't holding together anymore, of some reason, gravity would anyway bring particles with mass together in lumps.

Yep