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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‑gravitationally shrinks, its heat becomes intensified ("augmented") to a higher temperature and then radiated away into the ambient vacuum:
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In 1974, [[Stephen Hawking]] applied the above‑described principle of heat death to black holes and found that they, too, radiate away their energy ([[Hawking radiation]]) and consequently shrink in size; the smaller a black hole becomes, the faster it radiates away its remaining energy.
 Protons are such tiny black holes.<ref name="Zyga">Zyga, Lisa. [http://www.physorg.com/news161857121.html Is Everything Made of Mini Black Holes?]. ''PhysOrg.com'', 18 May 2009</ref>

==Related pages==
*[[Minimum total potential energy principle]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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