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Everything changes. Even the stars, that seem so constant, will one day burn out. The sky will change. Today, we’re going on a journey to the very distant future of the Universe to see what is in store for us all.

The time scales we will be talking about are truly mind-blowing. We’ll see what will happen to the Earth when the sun expands to be a red giant, and eventually becomes a white dwarf. We’ll see a spectacular explosion of star formation when our Galaxy, the Milky Way, collides with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy. Then we’ll go even farther into the future of the Universe and ask – what will happen when the stars burn out? What will the Universe look like without stars? Will black holes last forever? And what is the future of life when the Universe will have changed so drastically?

Today we are joined by Dr. Avi Loeb and Dr. Ethan Siegel. Avi is the Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy and the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science. He’s an expert on topics from black holes to the first stars, publishing 4 books and over 700 papers. Ethan is a theoretical astrophysicist and the well-known writer of his blog Starts With A Bang, found on Forbes. He has published two books: Beyond The Galaxy and Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive. His third book on the topic of the Universe before the Big Bang will be out in early 2020. You can follow Ethan on twitter at @startswithabang.

Music you hear on this podcast are clips from Harbor by Kai Engel ( 2017 ) licensed under CC BY 4.0, To Fail by Monplaisir licensed under CC0 1.0 Public Domain, Impact Lento by Kevin MacLeod licensed under CC BY 3.0, and Quiet Hours by onlymeith licensed under CC BY 3.0.