SPACE.com -- It's Universal: The Lights are Going Out


	It's Universal: The Lights are Going Out By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 11:00 am ET 07 August 2003

It's Universal: The Lights are Going Out

Not enough stars are being born to replace those that are dying across the cosmos, according to a new study supporting previous claims that the universe is headed into darker times.

Most of us don't need to worry, though. Our own lights will stop shining long before a truly noticeable change occurs universally.

The new study, announced today, examined 40,000 galaxies relatively close to our own Milky Way. For billions of years, there haven't been enough new stars turning on to replace the old ones that die and end their primary luminous phase.

The research was done by student Ben Panter and Professor Alan Heavens at Edinburgh University, along with Raul Jimenez at the University of Pennsylvania. It will be detailed in the Aug. 21 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"Our analysis confirms that the age of star formation is drawing to a close", Heavens said in a statement. "The number of new stars being formed in the huge sample of galaxies we studied has been in decline for around 6 billion years."

Similar results have come from studies involving more distant galaxies that are seen as they existed way back in time. Then and there, star formation was found to be far more prolific than in closer, more modern galaxies.

The new study used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It is the first to probe the concept by analyzing the entire light output of such a large number of galaxies, the researchers say.

Young stars tend to be hot and blue, while older stars are cooler and redder. So the overall color of each galaxy was used to determine the state of star formation.

Then What Happens?