Hi Board

Well thanks to Time we have the fate of the eternally accelerating Universe in the public's mind. But how certain is the ultimate heat death?

Here's an example of the kind of theoretical work being done in light of the supernova data...

http://au.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0106387

as the researchers point out the current Universe might be expansion dominated, but that doesn't mean that's the end of the story. A cosmological constant opposite to the expansion will ultimately bring us to the Big Crunch, and there is no data that currently says otherwise.

Here's another piece from Frank Tipler and friends...

http://au.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0104011

Personally I prefer the Crunch to the Void. Life might find a way of encoding itself in high energy radiation before the end and experience a subjective infinity in a finite time. A better fate that endless attentuation in a featureless void.

Adam