this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
538 points (93.5% liked)

Memes

44901 readers
3984 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most photons are emitted and never absorbed by anything...

Yet

Eventually all photons will hit something. Even if it's a trillion trillion trillion years in the future when nearly everything in the universe has decayed into irony.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but eventually the universe is going to be expanding faster than the speed of light. At that point all interaction ceases, and any photons that didn't get absorbed by something yet never would.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sort of. The expansion of space causes (and is measured by) redshift. The photon that doesn't get absorbed "exists" until its wavelength is not measurable (as its wavelength approaches infinity).

The cool thing about this is that it is identical to what happens in a black hole. Spaghettification. This also has the fun consequence of us possibly existing inside of a black hole, and black holes themselves are entire universes. Because of the breakdown of physics beyond the event horizon its not exactly easy to confirm or deny this either.

Edit: redshift not redshirt. Startfleet personal aren't dying here, it's photons