Universo: lenta morte anunciada.

O estudo contou com a participação de muitos grupos de pesquisa e alguns dos melhores telescópios disponíveis.

Um estudo com a participação de mais de 30 universidades e de muitos pesquisadores revela que o Universo está produzindo menos energia que a 2 bilhões de anos. A tendência é que a energia gerada seja cada vez menor e, juntando a isso à expansão observada, o fim será um lento apagar de luzes. A pesquisa foi realizada com a observação da luz em vários comprimentos de onda, usando os mais modernos telescópios (terrestres e espaciais) disponíveis - (projeto GAMA - Galaxy And Mass Assembly). Mas não se preocupe: esse "fim" ainda está muito, muito distante: dezenas de bilhões de anos ainda se passarão.

Para saber mais: aqui, aqui e aqui. Resumo do artigo (abstract):

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Panchromatic Data Release (far-UV|far-IR) and the low-z energy budget

Autores:
Simon P. Driver, Angus H. Wright, Stephen K. Andrews, Luke J. Davies, Prajwal R. Kae, Rebecca Lange, Amanda J. Mo ett,  ...


We present the GAMA Panchromatic Data Release (PDR) constituting over 230deg2 of imaging with photometry in 21 bands extending from the far-UV to the far-IR. These data complement our spectroscopic campaign of over 300k galaxies, and are compiled from observations with a variety of facilities including: GALEX, SDSS, VISTA, WISE, and Herschel, with the GAMA regions currently being surveyed by VST and scheduled for observations by ASKAP. These data are processed to a com- mon astrometric solution, from which photometry is derived for 221; 373 galaxies with r < 19:8 mag. Online tools are provided to access and download data cutouts, or the full mosaics of the GAMA regions in each band. We focus, in particular, on the reduction and analysis of the VISTA VIKING data, and compare to earlier datasets (i.e., 2MASS and UKIDSS) before combining the data and examining its integrity. Having derived the 21-band photometric catalogue we proceed to t the data using the energy balance code MAGPHYS. These measurements are then used to obtain the rst fully empirical measurement of the 0.1-500 m energy output of the Universe. Exploring the Cosmic Spectral Energy Distribution (CSED) across three time-intervals (0.3{1.1 Gyr, 1.1|1.8 Gyr and 1.8|2.4 Gyr), we nd that the Universe is currently generating (1:5 0:3) 1035 h70 W Mpc3, down from (2:5 0:2) 1035 h70 W Mpc3 2.3 Gyr ago. More importantly, we identify signi cant and smooth evolution in the integrated photon escape fraction at all wavelengths, with the UV escape fraction increasing from 27(18)% at z = 0:18 in NUV(FUV) to 34(23)% at z = 0:06. The GAMA PDR represents the largest multi-facility dataset ever assembled, and will allow for detailed studies of the energy production and outputs of individual systems, sub-populations, and representative galaxy samples at z < 0:5. The GAMA PDR can be found at: http://gama-psi.icrar.org/.