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Title: New Model Calculates Chances of Intelligent Beings In Our Universe and
Beyond
Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/11/16/1...
Chances of intelligent life emerging in our Universe "and in any hypothetical
ones beyond it" can be estimated by a new theoretical model, reports the
Royal Astronomical Society. Since stars are a precondition for the emergence
of life, the new research predicts that a typical observer [i.e., intelligent
life] should experience a substantially larger density of dark energy than is
seen in our own Universe... The approach presented in the paper involves
calculating the fraction of ordinary matter converted into stars over the
entire history of the Universe, for different dark energy densities. The
model predicts this fraction would be approximately 27% in a universe that is
most efficient at forming stars, compared to 23% in our own Universe. Dark
energy makes the Universe expand faster, balancing gravity's pull and
creating a universe where both expansion and structure formation are
possible. However, for life to develop, there would need to be regions where
matter can clump together to form stars and planets, and it would need to
remain stable for billions of years to allow life to evolve. Crucially, the
research suggests that the astrophysics of star formation and the evolution
of the large-scale structure of the Universe combine in a subtle way to
determine the optimal value of the dark energy density needed for the
generation of intelligent life. Professor Lucas Lombriser, Universite de
Gen�ve and co-author of the study, added: "It will be exciting to employ the
model to explore the emergence of life across different universes and see
whether some fundamental questions we ask ourselves about our own Universe
must be reinterpreted." The study was funded by the EU's European Research
Council, and published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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