Scientists' quest to unravel the mysteries of our past just received a new deadline. According to a recently published article, "The End of Cosmology?" co-authored by Vanderbilt Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department and Professor of Particles, Fields and Cosmology Robert J. Scherrer, the expansion of the universe is accelerating and sweeping up any traces of the footprints it left behind.

According to the article, published in "Scientific American," the expansion of the universe will eventually cause galaxies to be pulled apart.

The authors write, "In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred. To our distant descendants, the universe will look like a small puddle of stars in an endless, changeless void."

The article raises the unanswered question, "What knowledge has the universe already erased?"

Scherrer has been interested in what he describes as "the far future of the universe" ever since he was an undergraduate.

"I haven't worked on it since then," said Scherrer. "But I was hosting (Lawrence Krauss) and he's also interested in this topic. So we got to talking and we first wrote a couple of technical papers on the subject."
The "Scientific American" article was "intended for a broader audience," Scherrer said. "People who aren't specialists can learn what's going on about cosmology and become interested in it."

Scherrer encourages interested Vanderbilt undergraduates to further their knowledge of this field. "If an undergraduate physics major is interested in doing a senior thesis (on the subject), I'm happy to take them on."