How Long Until Everything Vanishes? Scientists Explore the Universe’s Ultimate Fade-Out

By Staff, Agencies

In a fascinating exploration of cosmic fate, scientists have tackled the question of how long it might take for the Universe to vanish entirely.

Building on Stephen Hawking’s famous theory that black holes slowly evaporate through what is now known as “Hawking radiation,” researchers have now calculated an estimated timeline for the end of everything.

According to a study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the Universe could fade away in roughly 10⁷⁸ years—a 1 followed by 78 zeroes. While this figure is dramatically shorter than previous projections [which suggested timelines as long as 10¹¹⁰⁰ years], it's still incomprehensibly far off by human standards.

The theory of Hawking radiation involves temporary particles forming near a black hole’s event horizon. If one of these particles falls into the black hole while the other escapes, the black hole loses mass and slowly decays. In a 2023 paper, scientists Heino Falcke [a black hole expert], Michael Wondrak [a quantum physicist], and Walter van Suijlekom [a mathematician] expanded this idea, proposing that this evaporation process applies not just to black holes, but to any massive object with a gravitational field—including neutron stars.

Their findings revealed that evaporation time depends solely on an object’s density. Surprisingly, both stellar black holes and neutron stars would take around 10⁶⁷ years to disappear, despite the black hole’s stronger gravity—likely because black holes lack a surface, balancing the equation.

Taking their calculations even further, the team estimated the evaporation time of the Moon and even a single human through a similar mechanism. Both would require an astonishing 10⁹⁰ years to vanish.

While the numbers are extreme, the researchers emphasize that these thought experiments have deeper significance. “By asking these kinds of questions and looking at extreme cases, we want to better understand the theory,” said van Suijlekom. “And perhaps one day, we unravel the mystery of Hawking radiation.”