Experimental observation shows heat death is most likely

THE universe is doomed to end up a barren, dark and empty void with no stars to light up the gloom.

That's the prediction from Professor Brian Cox, who told The Sun Online that the universe will end its days in a grim process called "heat death".

Brian and Professor Jeff Forshaw, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Manchester, have just published a book called Universal: A Journey Through The Cosmos, which tells the story of everything from the Big Bang onwards.

We asked him about the theory of "heat death", which suggests that in billions of years, all the stars in the universe will burn out or turn into black holes which will eventually eat each other up.

The supermassive black holes left after this feeding frenzy will then evaporate, leaving a barren void of eternal nothingness.

This theory about the grim fate of our universe hinges around the "theory of inflation", which suggests the universe will continue growing and growing rather than eventually collapsing in on itself in a cataclysmic "Big Crunch".

"The universe will probably end in heat death," said Professor Cox, who is a professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester and also works at CERN.

"We have seen through experimental observation that its expansion rate is increasing.

"If that continues, there will ultimately be no structures left."