From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Mon Aug 18 2003 - 14:21:41 MDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spacedocumentary/story/0,2763,1020759,00.html
http://www.ras.org.uk/html/press/pn0332ras.html
Full paper is available from Professor Alan Heaven's web site:
http://www.roe.ac.uk/~afh/MC1190rv.pdf
Quotes:
The universe is gently fading into darkness according to three
astronomers who have looked at 40,000 galaxies in the neighborhood of
the Milky Way.
"Our analysis confirms that the age of star formation is drawing to a
close", says Alan Heavens. "The number of new stars being formed in the
huge sample of galaxies we studied has been in decline for around 6
billion years - roughly since the time our own Sun came into being."
"Stars are formed in galaxies and there was a peak in the rate at which
galaxies formed, and that time has passed and been and gone," Prof
Heavens said.
Professor Tony Hewish, who won the Nobel prize in 1974 for his work in
discovering quasars at Cambridge University, said the dimming effect
would be made worse by those bright stars that did remain being spread
further apart as the universe expanded.
"We live in an accelerating universe now and so, as time goes on, the
density of galaxies is going to thin out," he said. "As far as we know
the universe as it is now is going to expand for ever, so ultimately it
must do something like that."
End quotes.
So apparently there are no signs of new energy being created by alien
civilizations in the 40,000 galaxies surveyed. It all seems to be
gradually dying out. And they are dying out in line with the natural
lifespan of stars - not because they are being put in a box and used as
batteries. :)
BillK
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