Fade to Black: The Night Sky of the Future [Slideshow]
The night sky on Earth (assuming it survives) will change dramatically as our Milky Way galaxy merges with its neighbors and distant galaxies recede beyond view.
The night sky on Earth (assuming it survives) will change dramatically as our Milky Way galaxy merges with its neighbors and distant galaxies recede beyond view.
The quickening expansion will eventually pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. This process eliminates reference points for measuring expansion and dilutes the distinctive products of the big bang to nothingness. In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred.
To our distant descendants, the universe will look like a small puddle of stars in an endless, changeless void.
Lawrence M. Krauss is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the physics department and inaugural director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Author of several popular books and commentaries for national publications, radio and TV, he also lectures widely on science and public policy. Krauss has the unique distinction of having received the highest awards from all three U.S. physics societies. In his spare time, he has performed The Planets with the Cleveland Orchestra and served as a Sundance Film Festival judge. He has written many articles and columns for Scientific American and serves on its board of advisers.
![Fade to Black: The Night Sky of the Future [Slideshow]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/59770B3E-2219-466B-ACB695B772413FAB_source.jpg?w=590&h=800&1976CB94-2568-470C-A28C9ED6F755B20D)
