In the middle of its life: scientists propose that the universe will collapse and will not expand forever

A recent cosmological model—developed by researchers at Cornell and Shanghai Jiao Tong—proposes the idea that the Universe might be halfway through its life and could collapse, culminating in a “Big Crunch”.

But don’t worry, we won’t be around to see it. The so-called ‘Crunch’ won’t happen for another 20 billion years, meaning we’ll be long gone as a species.

Now let’s get technical for a moment. This model has come into being in contrast to the prevailing view where dark energy acts as a constant pushing an indefinite and accelerating expansion. The new model (dubbed aDE, for “axion Dark Energy”) suggests dark energy evolves over time due to the influence of an ultralight particle.

As a result, the energy currently pushing on the expansion of the universe will, in effect, slow down, causing the Universe to contract like an elastic band, falling inward until it has collapsed back into a super-hot, super-dense singularity.

What happens after that? Nobody knows. The debate on the topic is still as hot as a small sun, with other alternative endings available.

For example, while some think the Universe could continue on forever, others believe that it could, rather terrifyingly, end with a “Big Rip”. In this model, the fabric of everything simply tears itself apart as the expansion becomes too much for it to handle. This theory, again, comes from the interpretation of Dark Energy, which continues to baffle the boffins in white coats.

Another theory is that the Universe, like an engine, simply runs out of fuel and powers down. Called both the “Big Freeze” and “Heat Death”, this idea states that one day, all the heat and energy will be evenly spread over incomprehensibly vast distances across the cosmos, at which point, the universe’s final temperature will hover just above absolute zero.

There will be no room for energy to exist, stars will turn off one by one and the Universe will simply, in the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson, wind down for eternity “not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

Luckily for us all, we’ve got a long time to be able to work it all out.

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