Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

THE END OF THE UNIVERSE WITH PROFESSOR DIABOLICA DOOMFIZZLE

THIS IS IT. IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE BIGGEST AND BEST TOPIC OF ALL. We've covered the death of planets and the death of stars (NOT TO MENTION BEING SPAGHETTIFIED BY A BLACK HOLE). IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE DEATH OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. But before we do, we need to clear something up...

WHAT DOES "UNIVERSE" MEAN ANYWAY? "UNIVERSE" IS A VERY BIG WORD. It means, more or less, "EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS EVERYWHERE." Which is a lot to deal with. Let's start close to home and zoom out until we get a feel for what the whole Universe looks like. THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG JOURNEY—BRING SOME SNACKS. The Solar System is our home in space. There is a yellow star in the middle (which we call the SUN), and some little rocks floating around it.

LET'S ZOOM OUT A LOT. Special effects are hard to do in books. If you like, you can imagine seeing this in the cinema with lots of DRAMATIC MUSIC. AS WE ZOOM OUT, THE SUN SHRINKS. It starts to look like any old star (which is exactly what it is). The planets get smaller and smaller until they are too small to see. THE WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM SHRINKS INTO A TINY DOT.

Some other stars rush into view. These are the stars close to the Sun, a few light years away. Even though they would take millions of years to travel to, they are still in our COSMIC BACK GARDEN. As we zoom out further and further, we see all the millions of stars around the Solar System are part of one long swoosh—this is one arm of the MILKY WAY spiral galaxy. Our Milky Way is REALLY, REALLY BIG. It's a swirly spiral cloud made up of around 200 billion stars. (THAT'S ABOUT 25 STARS PER PERSON ON EARTH. THOUGH I'M NOT SURE I HAVE ANYWHERE TO STORE MINE.) THE MILKY WAY IS SO BIG THAT IT WOULD TAKE 100,000 YEARS TO FLY ACROSS IT AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT! COMPARED TO THAT, OUR WHOLE SOLAR SYSTEM IS A TEENY-TINY DOT FAR TOO SMALL TO SEE. As big as it is, our galaxy is only the beginning. Let's keep zooming out. More dramatic music, please!