Scientists map how fast the Universe is fading

An international team of Astronomers have scanned the Universe to find out how fast it is fading.

They analysed the light from 200,000 galaxies in 21 wavelengths and found that the energy output of the Universe has nearly halved in two billion years.

This agrees with previous calculations, confirming that the lights are slowly going out right across this spectrum.

The drop is largely due to the falling rate at which new stars are formed.

The results, which come from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, were unveiled at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Honolulu, Hawaii.