ONLINE: This course will closely follow Katie Mack’s bestseller of the same name. The universe had a beginning. With the big bang, it expanded from a state of unimaginable density to an all-encompassing cosmic fireball to a simmering fluid of matter and energy, laying down the seeds for everything from black holes to one planet orbiting a star near the edge of a galaxy that developed life. But what happens to the universe at the end of the story? Here we take a mind-bending tour through five possible finales of the cosmos: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, the Big Rip, Vacuum Decay and the Bounce. We will guide you through cutting-edge science and major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory and more as we examine the fate of the universe as currently foreseen by the astrophysics community. | Lecture + Q&A.
Max enrollment: 200.
Class sessions are recorded.
