Death of the Universe | Wonders of the Universe w/ Brian Cox | BBC Studios

To celebrate World Space Week 2013 we're uploading clips from Wonders of the Universe with Professor Brian Cox. With the theory of Black Dwarf Stars, Professor Brian Cox considers the death of the universe, a time so far in the future it defies comprehension. Brian discovers that time is not characterised by repetition but by irreversible change. From the relentless march of desert sands to the erosion of a beached freighter, the ravaging effects of time are all around us. The vast universe is subject to these same laws of change. As we look out to the cosmos, we can see the story of its evolution unfold, from the death of the first stars to the birth of the youngest.
Having explored the wonders of the solar system, Professor Brian Cox steps boldly on to an even bigger stage - the universe. Who are we? Where do we come from? For thousands of years humanity has turned to religion and myth for answers to these enduring questions. But in this series, Brian presents a different set of answers - answers provided by science.
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[@danaxleeryoutube421]

I always find it entertaining how enthusiastic and happy he is about the end of existence.

[@VoragoGaming]

Its actually a very beautiful thing

[@atiphwyne5609]

How so?

[@jeanpierre7566]

@@atiphwyne5609 everything ends, suffering finally ends for everyone everywhere

[@atiphwyne5609]

@@jeanpierre7566 That implies there was only suffering going on before the end. This is an assumption which is patently not true, people die at all different stages of life in different states of happiness and sadness.

[@jeanpierre7566]

@@atiphwyne5609 To live is to suffer, I recommend you to read "every cradle is a grave", my assumption is not wrong, there could be a possibility that even up to a few million years before the end of the universe a conscious species (maybe humans, maybe aliens, maybe sentient AI) might still be trying to survive somewhere therefore they will still be experiencing suffering, only the end of everything will finally end suffering

[@therealbettyswollocks]

Nothing happens, and it keeps not happening, forever. Such a beautiful line to describe the end of everything.

[@arpitkulshreshtha3513]

in natural progression of his monologue I was expecting this line next : "All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in rain"

[@EricMalette]

I love this guy. His descriptions of the far flung future are actually comforting. He's spot on: "nothing happens and it keeps not happening, forever." It's beautiful.

[@cz2301]

Seems like my life, time to time

[@geoshitric4407]

I can’t hear it without the Timelapse of the Future soundtrack playing

[@KeepCalmandLoveClassics]

One line for Prof. Brian Cox.. Simplicity is the key to brilliance ✨ Love from Darjeeling, India 🇮🇳 Respect 🙏🏻

[@GeorgeSmith1066]

It’s mind bending to think that, even though the death of the universe is trillions of trillions of years away, that day will eventually arrive.

[@intheplums]

Nowhere near hundreds of trillions lol

[@ededdandeddytv5164]

I get some gnarly vertigo when I start thinking about things like that 😵‍💫

[@GeorgeSmith1066]

@@intheplums ok - so you know more than Professor Brian Cox? Interesting…

[@intheplums]

​@@GeorgeSmith1066 no... watch the video again. 100 trillion years is basically nothing compared to the amount of time he said

[@Robertpaulson7087]

Weirdly I find heat death a somewhat comforting end. I think we as humans understand that things get incrementally more disordered over time, our own lives quietly grinding to a halt as entropy marches onwards. By the end of your life a single hour has much less meaning than it did when you were a toddler; now just an infinitesimal fraction of your life. In the same way, the 14 billion years our infant universe has existed will become exponentially insignificant in contrast to the unimaginably vast periods of empty nothingness to come.

[@skcsnubh]

I feel the deepest sadness after watching this.

[@DiamondsOf2]

“Once the very last remnants of the very last stars have finally decayed away to nothing, and everything reaches the same temperature, the story of the universe finally comes to an end. For the first time in its life, the universe will be permanent and unchanging. Entropy finally stops increasing because the cosmos cannot get any more disordered. Nothing happens and it keeps not happening. Forever.”

[@stolpie]

Although talking about the end of all we know, this video is strangely poetic, beautiful and meaningful. :)

[@juliepeck7942]

It's mind-blowing and fascinating to think that the Universe, everything there was, is, and will be, will at some unimaginably time into the future, be reduced to an endless 'sea' of nothing. Forever.

[@rainsburysb]

The numbers here don't matter, we wont be here to say "I told you so" they are just a way of illustrating the idea. Many of the people here come across as armchair physicists happy to find fault in other peoples work without offering a viable alternative. As an A-Level physics teacher I have found that clips like this, in the right context, can be invaluable in stimulating discussion and making the students challenge the status quo.

[@balf1111117373]

Na I don't believe that, I say get a 5 year old child get them to close their eyes and imagine anything and everything and what ever they say Is just as plausible

[@rainsburysb]

Got most 5 yar olds to close their eyes and imagine something it will normally be " need a poo" or "Can I have a dinosaur"

[@stacypare7955]

Get a specific 5 year old to close his eyes and we all die.

[@MJS-zj6ib]

The most poetic explanation about the end of the Universe. The music helps as well. :)

[@antennastoheaven]

British accent makes all of his stories more mystically magic.

[@aghistorian763]

Anyone else who came here from "Timelapse of the Future"?

[@Wukey]

I can't stop coming back to that video. The Brian's bit about how "nothing happens and it keeps not happening" is a perfect ending along with the "Time becomes meaningless" part. It's a sad thought but it still makes me smile for some reason.

[@aghistorian763]

@@Wukey Exactly my thoughts man...

[@lindseychartier511]

I could listen to this guy all day.

[@kumarthecowboy]

He said something on Twitter and now I'm in existential crisis. And now I'm watching this

[@TheHobatron]

I just watched the whole episode again on DVD and it just broke my brain. I came here to remind myself how many times he said trillion...

[@KOTOVxAMNESIA]

I can't watch this without feeling weird about how short life is...

[@hectorgrundlesnyke5482]

"As a fraction of the lifespan of the Universe, from it's creation until it's death in ten thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years, life is only possible for one thousandth of a billion billion billionth billion billion billionth billion billion billionth of a percent." He's a cheery chap, our Brian.

[@hectorgrundlesnyke5482]

I'd say I'm a little late replying to your comment but, as a fraction of the lifespan of the Universe, from it's creation until it's death in ten thousand trillion trillion trillion......

[@garryhowgate1233]

I could listen to this guy all day

[@Lorenzano]

So beatiful the end with the time ceased, and brian is one of the best for explain so easy this topic!

[@edlawrence3955]

Thank you Brian for sharing your brilliant mind with the rest of us............. you're like a fatherly figure with the most soothing voice to keep one calm during the story

[@petelowson5481]

Great location to discuss this subject. The magnificent desolation of the Namibian Desert. Some real thought went into this series.

[@TheBrowney95]

Brian Cox is fantastic :)

[@cosmosredshift7174]

great series.

[@HhelllzzBbellzz]

You got a thumbs up for your honesty, concerning your personal state. The reality is, you shouldn't be mad, because it ends. You should be very happy, you got to see it. Even if it was but for an instant.

[@ag-bf3ty]

To put it another way, the Big Freeze is a temporal singularity. All moments of time are indistinguishable. As though they are the same. Much like the Big Bang was a spatial singularity. All locations in space being indistinguishable. As though they are the same. The latter being high entropy, and the former being low entropy.

[@mr.beanthememer8730]

The ending of the vdo is just marvelous

[@Gwydda]

This is brilliant. It'd made me scared, had I not seen the fantastic "Science saved my soul" video here on KZbin.. now I know I'm supposed to marvel the complexity and wondrousness of the universe :)

[@harry59566]

Very cool and interesting I love it and I’m doing it for a school project!

[@maxclark8706]

😂nice Harry

[@harry59566]

😂😂

[@rsdreamsrahul9621]

Will our children ever gone love this awesome series of wonders of the universe I used listen song while sleep recently I listen prof brain Cox videos to sleep

[@sushantbhandari7948]

Always kills it with his last line..

[@haroldsdodge]

Sushant Bhandari Not sure I understand your point. His last line is, "The arrow of time has simply ceased to exist". I think that's quite a good line to finish on. What's not to like about it?

[@NickwatchesYTtho]

haroldsdodge by "killing it" he means he finished it off. It's used when musicians, often rappers, do really well on their verse. So, it's a good thing he killed it with that last quote.

[@haroldsdodge]

MrNiCK10111 Ah, OK. Now I see. Guess I'm just too old. Not quite ten thousand trillion trillion (etc) years old, but too old for rap-speak, urban dictionary etc. Anyway, thanks for bringing me up to date!

[@peterpurvis9870]

The stand-up Fred Ferenczi was utterly depressed, then inspired, by this part of this episode and uses it in his set. Its hilarious.

[@craigs.2668]

I saw this as an 8yo on our glitchy satellite tv, instant core memory. still reeling

[@carawang8421]

Woah man this is amamammamamamamammazing I am such a science geek especially when it comes to all things space!!!

[@prasanthrainy]

MeeToo

[@iansnyder3781]

I did see it and it was testament to that fact! Great movie for sure

[@HassouTobi88]

Why is he smiling so much? How many dark secrets does he still keep to himself? This man is dangerous.

[@shilpashivadasan5115]

HassouTobi he's cute and intelligent ^.^

[@ScotsPipe]

It's just his genetic make up his , I know somene line that who smiles constantly hmm 🤔

[@Goldstone93]

He’s smiling because the universe is fucking incredible.

[@atheismisawesomesmith4541]

Funny, I am always concerned about people who never smile and ask myself: "How many secrets are they keeping to themselves?".

[@3Brandon11]

Hahaha

[@davebeningfield]

"Nothing happens, and it keeps not happening - forever." Sort of the long dark tea-time of the soul.

[@Scombes]

I remember watching this guy almost everyday

[@robertbrighton9797]

It’s rather humbling that one day a very long time from now everything will end forever

[@1334chandu]

I enjoyed, while watching the video and I learned that there is nothing at the end of the universe.

[@maratonec5]

i love this guy

[@adriennedoggy1926]

Imagine wishing to live forever and seeing this after you made your wish

[@monicaanderson6747]

tHANX..

[@BenTsangKun]

Makes you feel so insignificant in the grand scheme of things but more determined than ever to live your short existence to the full

[@SpidermanInLondon]

Death is a mercy. Who would like to live trillions-upon-trillions of years in a decaying universe? That would get dull, fast. The transitory nature of our lives makes them beautiful (and bearable).

[@IABITVpresents]

We could begin throwing out bad info of the history into black holes and never let the information escape. That way we could keep on living. The thing is, I would live in such universe, and would love to live as long and extract dark matter into hydrogen, helium and nebulae and keep supplying stars until we discover another universe to live in, and the end would be never.

[@IABITVpresents]

And if we die, we might as well die now, rather than continue on living, and let the non sentient atoms take care of everything before another Big Bang restarts our consciousness all over again

[@VoragoGaming]

If we were to live that long we would figure out how to create the big bang

[@byronmcguirk9207]

Can I ask a ask a question about big bang theory and the accepted notion that the universe is expanding rapidly ? Hubble stated, from his observations, that the further away galaxies are 'from us' the the faster they are moving away 'from us'. So this would imply that the further you look back in time, galaxies were moving faster, and the closer you look, galaxies are moving slower. From my understanding of this: the universe is contracting, not expanding. Redshift increases the further we look away, and blue shift is closer. This has to be a sign that the universe is contracting ? Hubble was observing galaxies that existed before our planet did, looking back in time ? Regards Byron

[@user-ve9dn9mg9s]

I can see the voice in this video "Timelapse of the Future"

[@cosmicboi1650]

It's so weird not hearing the music that played in "Timelapse of The Future."

[@tyyala]

Which was nice

[@delatroy]

When you have ultimate entropy, you will have complete order. Or is it like a spilt egg on the flooor where all the matter remains out there but motionless.

[@wjmcgill1674]

and as far away as that year is from now it will inevitably come

[@RosalbaPlatania]

Have you watched "Gravity" with Bullock and Clooney? The fiction story in the film is both beautiful and infinitely sad. The message is that we have only one hospitable home in this entire immense universe that will eventually die. We must protect and preserve our ecosystem on Earth now.

[@erenblackbeard106]

True

[@dvans5435]

How are you now after long 8 years?

[@thekoneill8]

This guy is the David Attenborough of physics.

[@TheChinaWatcher]

Interesting, sounds like retirement.

[@OscarPerez-ox8sq]

"The arrow of time simple cease to exist!"

[@libville]

It's a great show, but that IS kind of a bummer.

[@Pheonix704]

Our Earth Is Fragile 2022 Keep our Earth Safe

[@debut71]

this guy would definitely be the best drinking buddy to talk about stuff

[@practicalreadiness2314]

Well, that was depressing.

[@nicktoogood6790]

The universe is everything... But is also nothing... And that's what blows my mind

[@taylorlatch94]

We'll just need to create a new universe and all will be fine

[@samuelbaezpy]

That remember me to TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE

[@gonolz]

Wish I would have known about all this before I purchased that electric fan from Amazon five minutes ago.

[@thomasbryant6512]

To put things in perspective, if the life of the universe were only one year, we would only be in the first millisecond of January 1st.

[@xylsky1300]

I'm not a genius but hearing that the universe will die in that timeline makes me realize how insignificant we are. We are not part of something that is created for a purpose of the universe. We are just a leaf on a tree. We aren't the berries that grow on it, we aren't the shade it provides, we aren't the wood, we are just a leaf.

[@richardbroad2848]

We are microscopic bugs on a leaf.

[@farahniazi0807]

Leaf plays major role in preparing food for tree

[@leonardocastellanos5214]

Rest in Peace of our black star

[@matthewgewan605]

If there is no matter then there can be no gravity and hence no time, is that correct?

[@maximusdarkultima]

Funny, I just searched and watched a video with the same topic earlier today, then this shows up in my sub feed

[@JS-rv1ch]

maximusdarkultima everything you do online is tracked and exploited by the 1% who control the world

[@Jeff-BrokenJaw]

He said we believe there are no black dwarfs in the universe. That's not true. I saw two of them walking through the lobby when I went to the ER for a kidney stone. Kidney stones freaking hurt!

[@Postghost]

Are you as sad for the time before the universe began, because it's exactly identical as far a you'll be concerned. Just how people worry about the time after their death, what difference is it to considering the time before your birth?

[@marckristensen946]

Well, that's depressing ...

[@jirkabolech]

Yeah, we can't imagine infinity yet we can't accept or admit nothing before or after. With this inclination in mind, you have to suspect the fate of the universe must be different from its death. What's the universe anyway? Or is it a universe?

[@JacobChacko3008]

2:11 that is a Googol number of years.... that is 10 ^ 100 ....

[@ImranSahir1]

What happens then to all the space that will have expanded to a mind boggling size, and all the quantum fluctuations taking place in it everywhere?

[@iansnyder3781]

how beautifully depressing

[@craigmason6656]

And on that happy note. It's goodnight from me...

[@kenwoodXI3]

If energy can neither be created nor destroyed merely changed from one form to another what happens to all the energy at the end ? Is there an end?

[@LuisFernando-Salazar]

wow

[@alienufoweird]

Now i can rest, now i can breathe 🌬🌬

[@danielwalker5682]

Can anyone answer this: according to "best available theory" (whatever that is), will the final state of the universe differ in any way from the state of "nothingness" from which I think we are to understand "The Big Bang" produced everything? In other words, could the whole process repeat itself? Moreover, I have read that the application of entropy arguments to what is in fact a non-equilibrium system in the way Prof. Cox invites us to in this film is specious. Comments?

[@paragonofvirtue270]

Dan Walker : this is an open invitation for any opinion . According to the Quran the process will be repeated .

[@essy111]

This is quite old isnt it hw comes this hasnt been shown before?

[@arpitkulshreshtha3513]

Thanos was about to shorten that 10000 trillion trillion...whatever time to one snap of his fingers..but we didn't like that either!..🤣

[@konstantingeist3587]

big bang started somehow though. there's a lot of unknown physics before big bang. so logically there's also unknown physics after heat death.

[@doms6741]

As heat must have came from somewhere

[@essy111]

His mad with it ;-)

[@jeffreysokal7264]

When the last atom disappears, then time itself disappears, since time is a measurement of the oscillations of atoms. At this point, according to a thought of Roger Penrose, the universe will not know how large or small it is. It might be that if the universe considers itself to be infinitely small, one minor fluctuation of a virtual particle could create another Big Bang, and the whole thing could start over again.

[@doughead9160]

BETTER THEN THAN NOW!!!

[@matthewphilip1977]

Will all the energy be destroyed? I thought energy couldn't be created or destroyed?

[@Robertpaulson7087]

You’re absolutely right, all the energy present in the universe today will still exist, but in a state of maximum entropy, or disorder. Even objects such as black holes will slowly fade away into Hawking Radiation, leaving an unchanging, permanent state of absolute disorder. Brian Cox does a good video on entropy using a sandcastle as an example.

[@kaloyandjunow]

The liam Gallagher of pop physics

[@harrydodge3406]

All this will occur, he says, in "ten thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years". Anyone nerdish enough to have counted those zeros? Yep, I am. Turns out it's ... a hundred. Exactly a hundred. One with a hundred zeros, aka a googol. Some rounding off going on there, I'd imagine, but still, it's interesting to have found a practical use for a googol.

[@haroldsdodge]

***** So Cox's number, unimaginably vast though it is, is in fact only a microscopically tiny fraction of the actual timeline? Interesting!

[@1TotalJabroni]

Harry Dodge - it's a weird number to arrive at. He should have gone with a more relatable scenario to human life that arrives at a roughly equal number; like the number of push ups I can do in a minute. Now I'm not a big numbers guy but I'm pretty sure I can rip off 10 thousand trillion trillion... .... trillion push ups in a minute, and I think that is a whole lot easier to comprehend.

[@cjpatz]

Harry Dodge that was what the estimates have been. A googol years.

[@iwayanyudhapratama]

Like a melodysheep

[@Shridhar247]

You know what there is a documentry on KZbin, where in one of the channel called "melodysheep" in that "time lapse of the future" title named documentary contains the same audio of Brian Cox. I just got to know that "timelapse of the future" documentary is a collection of different people voices with some edited pictures. It has just reached near 50 million views. Interesting isn't it? Is that a copyright violation?

[@ejl1000]

Watch it and find out ;)

[@marlonwhitehead6031]

“Energy can’t be destroyed” they say so where will it go?

[@stacka1116]

Energy will be completely even and all the photons and such will all posses the same everything where nothing changes anymore though a dark empty void

[@elcamman50]

Everything, and everyone has an expiration date to it. The Universe is not exempt from that. Why is that so hard for people to understand, or want to understand. Dr. Cox tries to explain it to us in his elegant simplicity. We are not the center of the universe, and when we are gone, the universe will not even know of, or care about, our passing.

[@888jucu]

@@IABITVpresents C'est La Vie

[@chadrourke6920]

Of course the “universe” won’t know or care. The universe is not a person. The universe doesn’t not have a mind, a will, or emotions.

[@jamesbayliss1617]

Shout out to melodysheep.

[@gabrielc6252]

3:50 "the arrow of time ceases to exist" I call bs! Maybe time will have no meaning for us, but time does not stop.

[@chrisoakleyfx]

It would if there was nothing out there to exist in time. Kind of like, "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" ... time only exists and can be defined when things are changing; if there is no matter or energy or anything out there left to be changed... no particles flying around, no quantum probabilities, no waves to propagate, no space to stretch or compress... when the matter and energy in the universe reduces to zero, how could there be time? Time only means anything when there is something to be affected over time. When all the matter and energy in the universe and space itself ceases to exist, time will become meaningless.

[@gabrielc6252]

​@@chrisoakleyfx that is a mighty comprehensive and complex argument you got there. I think that time passes regardless of what happens. Even if something does not happen now, it may start to happen in a few minutes

[@chrisoakleyfx]

@@gabrielc6252 I concede there is the whole thing of entangled quantum particles spontaneously appearing out of nothing and all sorts of quantum weirdness, so "nothing" can be open to interpretation I suppose, so maybe you're right in a sense :D

[@cortez1359]

What's to stop another big bang after the end of the universe though?

[@DoctorMobius]

Current calculations suggest there won't be enough gravitation to pull things back together after the Big Bang scattered them so wide...

[@zoink53]

2:45

[@chasp_0784]

So…even space stops expanding?

[@AthelWah]

Makes me sad that one day, all will be gone... And then I read the comments and cheer up knowing a lot of these very "interesting" people will be gone with it.

[@IABITVpresents]

Will another Big Bang make everything up the same way as it used to be, or it will be entirely different??

[@infinityeconomicsinfinitye2040]

💐🙏