Least Energy. I.e. yes. Does be pretty good.
Comment on If proton decay isn't true
KTJ_microbes@mander.xyz 3 days ago
Okay. I need a physicist. How does that relate to the heat death of the universe. Is all iron-56 the most probable distribution of energy in the universe (max entropy)?
Gladaed@feddit.org 2 days ago
Zink@programming.dev 2 days ago
Not a physicist, but I thought the heat death of the universe also involved all the matter being sucked into black holes and turned into pure energy. There’s a big chunk converted up front in the accretion disk, then the rest is converted into hawking radiation as the black hole(s) evaporate over the oodles and oodles of years.
Whether or not there are also lumps of iron-56 or other matter floating around in the cold void probably depends on the real truth behind dark matter and dark energy and their long-term behavior.
Legianus@programming.dev 1 day ago
Astronomer here, not necessarily. Generally, heat death just means entropy goes maximal, as in everything is as spread out as it can be and the heat everywhere in the universe is the same.
Not sure if on those time scales all gets sucked up by BH
KTJ_microbes@mander.xyz 3 days ago
This is an important question with real-life implications.
Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Not a physicist yet, temporarily a high school physics and maths teacher until I can start my PhD
Fe-56 is the heaviest nucleus that releases energy when other nuclei fuse into it. Everything heavier requires energy, that has to come from somewhere else, to fuse. All things tend to keep doing stuff that release energy, and they don’t like to do stuff that requires energy. So, in a long enough amount of time, nuclei keep fusing together while it releases energy, and stop when it starts to require energy.
This pretty much only takes nuclear physics into account though, whereas the actual universe is a lot more complicated and will thus probably not turn itself into all iron.