Confused by Brian Cox about stardust

[Gandahar]

Pints said:

Gandahar said:

I do sometimes think their is too much Cox bashing going on at times.

[snigger]

Yes my spelling is worth laughing at, I have corrected it now

[lionelf]

Moonhawk said:

lionelf said:

Moonhawk said:

For the final state of the universe - it is likely to be populated by white, red and brown dwarf stars which are still composed of relatively http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/imgs/15.gifligh... elements (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium etc) but too small to initiate fusion. There will also be a fair few neutron stars and black holes.

Hawking has established that all Black Holes will eventually evaporate over large time scales.

Which is covered further down the wiki article I linked to.

By 'final state', I was referring to the elemental mixture of the universe once fusion has essentially ceased.

Ah, my bad, I don't have time to read linked articles alas. You're inclusion of (non-elemental) black holes alongside (elemental) neutron stars led me astray when reading your post into thinking that you talking about some point after the universe has boiled down to its final elements. Cheers.
I don't have time to read the article so I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that using Black Holes don't have any elements so didn't consider that you were talking about the point at which the universe has boiled down to it's final elementary components rather than it's very ultimate fate. Cheers.

Edited by lionelf on Wednesday 6th January 15:58

[Moonhawk]

lionelf said:

Moonhawk said:

lionelf said:

Moonhawk said:

For the final state of the universe - it is likely to be populated by white, red and brown dwarf stars which are still composed of relatively light elements (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium etc) but too small to initiate fusion. There will also be a fair few neutron stars and black holes.

Hawking has established that all Black Holes will eventually evaporate over large time scales.

Which is covered further down the wiki article I linked to.

By 'final state', I was referring to the elemental mixture of the universe once fusion has essentially ceased.

Ah, my bad, I don't have time to read linked articles alas. You're inclusion of (non-elemental) black holes alongside (elemental) neutron stars led me astray when reading your post into thinking that you talking about some point after the universe has boiled down to its final elements. Cheers.

I don't have time to read the article so I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that using Black Holes don't have any elements so didn't consider that you were talking about the point at which the universe has boiled down to it's final elementary components rather than it's very ultimate fate. Cheers.

I can see how that may have confused matters.

I guess the simple point of my post is - the universe will never be made primarily of Uranium.

[Derek Smith]

Puns aside, I think Cox does well in his popularising of science.

When I was a kid, there was Fred Hoyle who had a regular series on the radio talking about new, then, discoveries in the physical sciences. He was an odd fellow, and certainly had a massive conceit, which came over on the radio. I never really took to him, but the programmes were great. My elder brother had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and so we could listen more intently, albeit with the occasional interruption from my mum telling us it was time to go to sleep.

Hoyle was the supporter of alternative theories of the origin of the universe. Despite his view being exposed as having no support, he was very aggressive in its defence.

He got me hooked on astronomical physics.

I would assume Cox has done the same for a lot more kids than Hoyle ever did so good on him..