Energy in Universe

[vijaywantstoknow]

I am a layman to Science. I wanted to know, will the total amount of energy in the universe will be a constant at any given point of time? If so what is the value and how is it calculated?

 

[lukman]

Maybe can use E=MC^2 (M=total mass of the universe)<br />HOwever, most of the mass already annihilated during the early creation of universe, when 50.000...1% matter met annihilated by 49.999...9% anti matter. So, if they are not accounted, then we will never calculate the mass of the universe. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[dragon04]

Maybe the best way to explain this is that there is a difference between the <b>potential</b> energy in the Universe versus the actual energy at any given moment.<br /><br />We know that two processes rule our existence. One of them combines two masses and yields energy.<br /><br />The other one describes the decay of matter that never interacts with other matter to produce energy. <br /><br />In the best case, every bit of matter interacts with another bit of matter and produces maximum potential energy. In the worst case, no matter interacts with other matter, and eventually, the bonds that hold that matter dissolve before it can be used and we have nothing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[vijaywantstoknow]

Are these matter and anti-matter created during Big-Bang? Are these created from a Big Source of Energy? Is it true that matter can be formed from pure Energy and vice versa? Can energy exist alone without matter? Please explain in layman's term.

 

[vijaywantstoknow]

Where does the energy go? Does it fade away? or is it distributed to other matters? Is it liberated from the universe to outside the universe? please explain in layman's terms.

 

[nexium]

It is generally belived that matter is conserved and energy is conserved, but perhaps 1% of the energy becomes matter per billion years, and perhaps several percent of the matter becomes energy per billion years. Much of the energy is in the form of gamma rays and other photons, but most of it may be nuetrinos and some is the kinetic energy of sub atomic particals and larger objects. It is thought that energy never fades away but energy to matter transitions do occur. Likely less than 1% of the matter of the universe enters a black hole per trillion years, so this has little effect on the matter-energy budget. Neil

 

[heyscottie]

A simpler way to look at it is that the total "energy budget" in the universe does indeed seem to be conserved. More specifically, although energy converts to matter and back again, the sum total of it all should always add up.<br /><br />As time goes by, this energy becomes both more diffuse (as the universe expands and entropy increases, leaving the energy in more and more unusable forms), or more dense (in the case of growing black holes, which also seems to leave the energy in an unusable form).<br /><br />Note that a possible exception to the conservation rule may involve multiple universes, or multiple "branes", as has been suggested by some cosmologists. In this case, energy or mass may possibly flow out of this universe into another, or vice versa. Theoretically, the total energy budget in the "mulitverse" would then be conserved, but not necessarily in any given universe. I should mention, however, that there is no strong evidence for anything in this paragraph, and is at the current time, more or less speculative.