According to quantum physics, it’s possible that the Higgs field, which gives matter its mass, isn’t as stable as it seems and could be in a false vacuum. In theory it could collapse to a lower energy state releasing massive amounts of energy while turning surrounding matter into a different kind of matter with theoretically completely different laws of physics… If just one particle manages to reach this true vacuum state (through quantum tunneling fore example), the effect will be a collapse of the universe around it, expanding at light speed.
Some interpretations state that stars and even life will survive such an event. Others state that nothing most people think of as “matter” will survive. Either way, unless we can prove that our current understanding of physics is wrong, devastation at a universal scale could happen any time, anywhere.
The universe could be collapsing as we speak and we have no way to predict it, no way to prevent it and no way to even be sure this is it isn’t already happening. All it would take is a single particle in the entire universe to fuck up and we’d be doomed. What we know as the universe could disappear into nothingness at any point in time, leaving not even bones or a planet for theoretical future civilisations to find.
Luckily, vacuum decay is limited by the speed of light, so it could take billions of years before the bubble of death hits us. It could also hit in five seconds.
Correction, it should be the entire observable universe not the entire universe since light outside the observable universe cannot reach us due to expansion thus anything that travels at speed of light can also not reach us.
Either way, unless we can prove that our current understanding of physics is wrong, devastation at a universal scale could happen any time, anywhere.
This is a disingenuous way to phrase this. Our current understanding of physics leads us to hypothesize that our universe could be metastable, there is no proof that we actually exist in such a state.
Of all the big scary things in the universe, this one scares me the least. Even if it does happen and is the worst-case scenario you just cease to exist at the speed of light before you even know something is happening. No pain, no dread at your inevitable demise, you just are living your life normally and in a nanosecond you are gone. Not a bad way to go, imo.
Once the expansion of the universe has accelerated enough we should be safe from this, right? My thinking is that if some galaxy starts collapsing as you described, but all surrounding galaxies are moving away at FTL speeds, it would never reach them.
If expansion does come close to or exceeds the speed of light we should be safe from far away galaxies, for sure. At the speed of light, it’ll take ages for such an event to ever reach us in the first place, so the only realistic danger is that vacuum decay has already happened and is coming right for us.
However, if it can occur at all, it can occur a second time, closer to our home.
According to quantum physics, it’s possible that the Higgs field, which gives matter its mass, isn’t as stable as it seems and could be in a false vacuum. In theory it could collapse to a lower energy state releasing massive amounts of energy while turning surrounding matter into a different kind of matter with theoretically completely different laws of physics… If just one particle manages to reach this true vacuum state (through quantum tunneling fore example), the effect will be a collapse of the universe around it, expanding at light speed.
Some interpretations state that stars and even life will survive such an event. Others state that nothing most people think of as “matter” will survive. Either way, unless we can prove that our current understanding of physics is wrong, devastation at a universal scale could happen any time, anywhere.
The universe could be collapsing as we speak and we have no way to predict it, no way to prevent it and no way to even be sure this is it isn’t already happening. All it would take is a single particle in the entire universe to fuck up and we’d be doomed. What we know as the universe could disappear into nothingness at any point in time, leaving not even bones or a planet for theoretical future civilisations to find.
Luckily, vacuum decay is limited by the speed of light, so it could take billions of years before the bubble of death hits us. It could also hit in five seconds.
Just in case anyone was looking for a slickly-animated, duck-filled video with soothing narration that they could watch to learn more, here:
https://youtu.be/ijFm6DxNVyI
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/ijFm6DxNVyI
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Good bot.
Correction, it should be the entire observable universe not the entire universe since light outside the observable universe cannot reach us due to expansion thus anything that travels at speed of light can also not reach us.
This is a disingenuous way to phrase this. Our current understanding of physics leads us to hypothesize that our universe could be metastable, there is no proof that we actually exist in such a state.
Of all the big scary things in the universe, this one scares me the least. Even if it does happen and is the worst-case scenario you just cease to exist at the speed of light before you even know something is happening. No pain, no dread at your inevitable demise, you just are living your life normally and in a nanosecond you are gone. Not a bad way to go, imo.
Breh I had enough existential crises already, thanks for that >:(
Once the expansion of the universe has accelerated enough we should be safe from this, right? My thinking is that if some galaxy starts collapsing as you described, but all surrounding galaxies are moving away at FTL speeds, it would never reach them.
That would reduce the chances, but this could happen to literally any particle. Kind of hard to avoid it when it’s in one of your spleen molecules.
If expansion does come close to or exceeds the speed of light we should be safe from far away galaxies, for sure. At the speed of light, it’ll take ages for such an event to ever reach us in the first place, so the only realistic danger is that vacuum decay has already happened and is coming right for us.
However, if it can occur at all, it can occur a second time, closer to our home.