Aarakocra t1_j69xwe4 wrote
Yes-ish. The concept of the heat death of the universe is the end result of that idea. The stars cool off and we are left with bodies that slowly cool down until things reach absolute zero and the universe is “dead”.
But that plays out over a long time. The body loses heat through the standard mechanisms of radiation (excitement at the atomic level results in photons jumping off), convection (fluid passes over the body and takes heat as it leaves), and conduction (something is in contact with the body and heat transfers through it). We would only be talking about radiation here, because this object is alone. Radiation happens based on how much activity is happening down at the atomic level, so the rate of cooling is going to decrease as the temperature decreases. However the radiation will happen at some point, so the body will eventually drop to absolute zero. We have a nonzero loss of energy, so as long as we have zero gain in energy it has to eventually hit zero.
At least assuming it is a true absence of cosmic radiation. This only holds as long as there is no input energy transfer taking place. Even a star far away could produce enough energy to keep the body from reaching absolute zero. The assumption of zero gain in energy is hard to pull off.
Also fun fact, you couldn’t observe the object at absolute zero either! As far as I know, we can’t measure such an object without giving back some energy.
[deleted] t1_j6a8ktf wrote
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Varsect t1_j6hlvj0 wrote
>Yes-ish. The concept of the heat death of the universe is the end result of that idea. The stars cool off and we are left with bodies that slowly cool down until things reach absolute zero and the universe is “dead”.
You can't reach absolute zero. Dark Energy is there, even without Dark Energy, subatomic particles will still be there, also, absolute zero on such scales and definitions would require true nothing to exist and we don't even know if that is possible
>However the radiation will happen at some point, so the body will eventually drop to absolute zero.
That's now how Thermodynamics works, at all.
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