Astronomy: did we shorten the life of the Universe?

A recent theory speculates that the life of the universe may have been shortened by the very fact that someone is studying it. This theory applies quantum physics on a cosmological scale.

Quantum physics applied on a cosmological scale?

Very briefly, quantum physics assumes that a system can exist simultaneously in several different states. Observing this system, however, we end up influencing it, ending up precipitating a particular state of the system, among all those possible. This would force the system itself to change its configuration towards the state “chosen” by the observer.

Will it be our fault if the universe ends sooner?

An article by New Scientist reports in practice a variant of this theory, according to which the fact that astronomers have recently discovered dark matter would have made it more likely that the universe itself is destined for an end nearer in time. More likely than it would have been if no one had ever observed dark matter (as it happened in 1998), capable of accelerating the expansion of the cosmos (and thus nearing its end).

According to professors Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, the 1998 observation would in practice have made more probable the “accelerated” end of the universe.

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