The conclusion of a new astronomical study pulls no punches. "The Universe is slowly dying," it says.
Astronomers have believed as much for years, but the new findings establish the cosmos' decline with unprecedented precision.
An international team of some 100 scientists used data from the world's most powerful telescopes -- based on land and in space -- to study energy coming from more than 200,000 galaxies in a large sliver of the observable universe.
Based on those observations, they have confirmed the cosmos is radiating only half as much energy as it was 2 billion years ago. The astronomers published their study on Monday on the website of the European Southern Observatory.
The team checked the energy across a broad spectrum of lightwaves and other electromagnetic radiation and says it is fading through all wavelengths, from ultraviolet to far infrared.
At www.cnn.com
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