this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
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Ooc how do we know it's young? We haven't exactly witnessed the lifespans of any other universes to compare it to!
No but we can estimate the total age before cosmic inflation renders the universe cold and so far spread out so as to be considered “dead”
That timeline is around 10^27 years, of which we only right now have been around for about 10^9. So we are VERY young compared to the max age. On the cosmological timescale, we are still “being born”
I appreciate you answering the question genuinely as I was genuinely curious!
Another factor is estimating the total amount of hydrogen available to form new stars. The last estimate I heard was nine times as much as is currently bound up in stars.
That's fascinating I would've thought most of it is in stars and the rest is a miniscule amount by comparison like 98% or more was in stars or something.