It will crumple, burst into pieces, or freeze.
Does our universe have an end, and if so, what end?
Here are three main theories that scientists have put forward regarding a cosmic Doomsday.
“It could happen that in the end, only an ice soup will remain of the universe,” says Markus Janson, a professor at Stockholm University.
The universe is usually described as something infinite.
But most scientists today believe that space will actually cease to exist one day, though they don’t know exactly how.
Drawing of a star that has been swallowed up by a supermassive black hole.
“First, of course, it is necessary to emphasize that no one knows for sure what will happen. But today, most scientists still agree that the universe in its current form will somehow cease to exist,”says Markus Janson, professor of astronomy at Stockholm University.
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“The laws of thermodynamics tell us that chaos is constantly growing in our universe. Usable types of energy are increasingly becoming unusable,”he continues.
Today there are many different theories, according to which our space is only one among an infinite set of universes, and the universe that we know and can observe today has different dimensions.
In addition, there are various theories about how our universe could one day cease to exist.
The most common theories can be summarized as follows.
Big collision
Most of us are familiar with a theory called the Big Bang, about the sudden beginning of the expansion of the universe, which resulted in the appearance of time, space and matter about 13.8 billion years ago.
The big collision is, one might say, the same as the Big Bang, just the opposite. Now we can observe how the space is expanding, but, according to this theory, the general gravitational forces of the Universe will gradually slow down this movement over time and again begin to pull all matter into one place.
Finally, the Universe will collapse into one small and incredibly hot spot.
“For a long time, this theory was considered the most plausible. There is a large amount of matter in the Universe, and it can be assumed that its parts are attracted to each other. Therefore, even if space is now expanding, according to this theory, gravity will eventually stop the run, and the universe will begin to contract again,”says Markus Janson of Stockholm University.
But this, according to some, does not necessarily mean that the universe will "end." It is possible that the whole process will simply repeat itself, and a new Big Bang will occur. In other words, our Universe is doomed to constantly expand and contract - like a beating heart.
“Several years ago this theory had more supporters. And now we have discovered that the Universe is not only expanding, but also accelerating, and accelerating more and more,”adds Markus Janson.
Big gap
This version is kind of the opposite of the Big Collision theory. Researchers believe that the current accelerating expansion of the universe is caused by so-called dark energy, which acts as a counterweight to gravity. Even the world's leading physicists cannot explain what this dark energy is or what it is made of. But if you try to express everything in simple words, it may turn out that the ultimate fate of our Universe is determined precisely by the struggle between dark energy and gravity.
If gravity wins in the end, the universe is likely to collapse according to the Big Impact theory. But if dark energy turns out to be more powerful than gravity, then space will begin to expand faster and faster.
Eventually, dark energy will become so powerful that it can tear atoms apart, which in turn will lead to the so-called Great Rip.
“If the universe continues to expand rapidly, accelerating more and more, then, according to this theory, the acceleration will eventually become so strong that even atoms cannot remain one,” says Markus Janson of Stockholm University.
Big freezing
This theory is also called the Big Freeze. According to her, the expansion of the Universe will continue faster and faster, which means that the distance between galaxies and celestial bodies will grow. This, in turn, will lead to the fact that the thermal energy of today's universe will be evenly distributed over more and more space, and ultimately the universe will become too cold to generate and support life.
“The gas will no longer be so dense, as it will scatter more and more, which means that new stars will not be born. And without the stars, nothing can warm the planet,”explains Markus Janson of Stockholm University.
In this future universe, even black holes will eventually disappear, according to the theory of the so-called Hawking radiation, due to which they gradually lose mass.
In the end, we will have space without planets, stars, black holes - by and large, nothing will remain at all.
“This scenario does not name a clear moment when our space will cease to exist. It may be that in the end there will simply be something like a huge bowl of ice-cold universal soup made of rare stationary atoms,”says Markus Janson of Stockholm University.
So will the universe end, torn apart, turned into an ice soup, or shrunk into a small ball?
Who will live will find out.
Jon Forsling