Astro2110 – The Solar System

One of my favorite topics in science since I took AP Chemistry has been the concept of entropy. (So much so that I’ve adopted it as my internet pseudonym to allude to my tendency to catalyze social controversy wherever I go.)

Entropy was the first abstract concept that I encountered; we didn’t have a perfect system in putting numbers to it as it is quite literally a measure of unpredictability. But what fascinated me most of all, is that it’s the one exception to the cyclical and conservative nature of the universe that I had been taught before. And it is this exception that will spell the end for the universe.

One of the axioms of primary school science classes is that energy is neither created nor destroyed. And that still holds true when you bring entropy into the equation. However, entropy is the cosmos’ factor of inefficiency and imperfection— the amount of energy in the universe remains constant but the amount that stays within usable grasp dissipates with the travel of time’s arrow.

For example, we harvest fossil fuels to operate auto-technology, but as you may have heard from climate activists, it isn’t a source with a large net wield of usable energy. Only about 1/3 of the energy released from the bond enthalpies of these hydrocarbons actually keep our machinery going or provide us with electricity.

Nuclear is by far one of the power sources with the largest percent wield of usable energy. But even it doesn’t provide us with 100%; a small fraction of its energy still goes into useless molecular heat.

Energy used for movement isn’t excluded either, the enigma of friction turns a fraction of kinetic energy into heat as well.

Even if we were to leave our solar system in the event of the sun’s stellar death, there would come a point where the amount of usable energy around us would run out. The accumulation of this escaping heat would make it impossible for life to continue since the synthesis of ATP of course, requires energy. The symbiosis of autotrophs, heterotrophs and their ecosystems would cease.

If we were to give entropy a numerical value, it would always be increasing since the physical imperfections described above are always present. When it eventually reaches its maximum, all of the energy in the universe will be turned into unusable heat. The universe would also have likely expanded far beyond the bounds it holds now, so all of said heat will be sparse. This is called the Heat Death of the universe, named for both its cause of all energy being in the form of heat and the heat being so dispersed that it would feel as if no heat is present at all.

As we’ve learned in the reading, stars and galaxies which we have observed have shown a tendency to recycle their components; the collapse of these astronomical structures often lead to the birth of others. Nebulas provide a nursery for new stars.

But entropy is the line embedded into the code of the universe that eventually leads to the exiting of the loop.

It’s the fault in our stars.