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Heat death of the universe
The idea of the heat death of the universe, proposed in 1851 by [[w:William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|William Thomson]], stems from the [[second law of thermodynamics]], which states that [[heat]] tends to pass from hotter to colder bodies and eventually becomes uniformly distributed. As an elementary particle of matter (such as a proton) self&#8209;gravitationally shrinks, its heat becomes intensified ("augmented") to a higher temperature and then radiated away into the ambient vacuum:
(contracted; show full)protons, the gravitational potential energy is proportional to the radius of a single proton and to the spatial separation of protons.<ref>Thomson, it will be remembered, stores his heat in the form of the potential energy of separation of the elements of the sun.</ref> Thus, the continuum's protons attain the minimal potential energy by shrinking and accelerating towards the continuum's central proton:
<center>[[Image:Dendritic_drainage_system.jpg|200px]]</center>
As the 
periphenoncentral protons move towards the continuum's central proton, whose accelerating influence intensifies in accordance with the [[Inverse-square law|inverse&#8209;square law]], they radiate away their rest mass, so that their resistance to acceleration decreases. Having radiated away a half of their initial rest mass, the periphenoncentral protons instantaneously tunnel into the continuum's central proton.

==Evolution of the idea==
At first, the prevailing opinion was that the heat death of the universe was in the distant future, because stars initially had high temperatures and cooled progressively with time, so that the rate of heat loss exponentially decreased. This insouciant view was overturned by [[w:Jonathan Homer Lane|Jonathan Homer Lane]], who in 1870 discovered that the temperature of a self&#8209;gravitating perfect-g(contracted; show full)*[[Minimum total potential energy principle]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Thermodynamics]]
[[Category:Universe]]