Name: Will the Universe's Stars Someday Disappear?
Uploaded: undefined
Duration: undefined

Nova

The chance of a star being born today is much lower than it was in the universe's past. Here's why—and how astronomers predict the age of stars will someday come to an end.

The age of stars is not as enduring as it might seem.

Will the Universe's Stars Someday Disappear?

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Koch Foundation

NOVA Science Trust Logo

The chance of a star being born today is much lower than it was in the universe's past. Here's why—and how astronomers predict the age of stars will someday come to an end.

The age of stars is not as enduring as it might seem.

Space & Flight

Will the Universe's Stars Someday Disappear?Published: November 10, 2021Grant Tremblay: The chance that a star is going to be born nowadays is much, much lower than it was billions of years in the past.Raman Prinja: Just as there was a very first star in the universe, there will come a time when the era of stars will come to an end.Narrator: The age of stars is not as enduring as it might seem.Lucie Green: I have here a timeline of the universe and I'm here at the start, when the universe formed 13.8 billion years ago during the big bang. Now it took a while for the first stars to form. In fact, a few hundred million years, let's call that 400 million years.So on my scale stars start to form here and those stars carried on forming. And then we reached this point here, 4 billion years since the big bang and a time when the most stars are forming in the universe. Our sun though, didn't form until 9 billion years have passed. And that's my marker here.And then we move forward again. And we get to this point here, which is the present day, 13.8 billion years since the formation of the universe. Now our sun won't live forever. And in fact, it will start to die and end its life in around 5 billion years time. But the sun will be outlived by the least massive stars in the universe.They have lifetimes of a few hundred billion years, and that's about 200 meters on my scale. But even when those stars die, that doesn't mark the end of the universe, the universe could live forever with the timeline stretching far off into the distance. And that means that the age of star light that I've mapped out here is like the blink of an eye to the universe. It's the age of darkness that goes on and on.Narrator: Stars won't suddenly disappear, of course, they'll be here for hundreds of billions, perhaps even trillions of years to come. But slowly over time, the universe will become darker, emptier.

United States

Northern Mariana Islands

Puerto Rico

American Samoa

Guam

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Minor Outlying Islands

US & Territories

NOVA investigates the story of cannabis from the criminalization that has disproportionately harmed communities of color to the latest medical understanding of the plant. What risks does cannabis pose to the developing brain? How much do we know about its potential medical benefits? As cannabis becomes socially accepted, scientists are exploring its long-term health consequences. (Premiered September 29, 2021)Check out a previously recorded panel discussion and audience Q&amp;A featuring experts and producers from "The Cannabis Question" <a href="https://youtu.be/nSTT5RZ_hxA">here</a>.

As state-legalized cannabis spreads, NOVA explores its little-known risks and benefits.

The Cannabis Question

A 2006 composite image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Telescope shows the chaos of baby stars in the Orion nebula some 1,500 light-years away. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI

With the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble era is gradually drawing to a close. Here are some highlights from the countless wonders Hubble has shown us during its 31 years in space.

10 spectacular Hubble Space Telescope images

A statue of Zheng He at the Sam Poo Kong Temple in Java, Indonesia. Image Credit: Budianto Santosa, Shutterstock

In the 1400s, Zheng He sailed thousands of miles around Asia and Africa in ships the size of soccer fields, spreading Chinese innovations like compasses and gunpowder in the process.

Will the Universe's Stars Someday Disappear?

Support Provided By

Explore More

NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

Signals From the First Stars Could Show Hints of Dark Matter

How a Star Dies in a Supernova

Transcript

Credits

Support Provided By

Explore More

NOVA Universe Revealed: Age of Stars

Signals From the First Stars Could Show Hints of Dark Matter

How a Star Dies in a Supernova