Evidence Suggests Our Theory for the End of The Universe is Wrong
New information suggests the universe might end in a big crunch!
The current most supported theory of the universes inevitable demise is the heat death. The heat death is the theory that dark energy, the mysterious force causing the universe to expand will ultimately (after a very long, long, time) pull everything apart, starting with the cosmic web, then galaxy clusters, galaxies, star clusters, solar systems, and so on until there is nothing left in the universe other than energy and radiation, leaving an empty and desolate void behind. However, this theory is based on the evidence that the expansion of the universe is speeding up or staying constant which was proven in 1998, and new findings suggest that an older theory might be the true end to the universe, named the big crunch.
The Heat Death
The heat death was proven back in 1998, when three teams lead by astronomers Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess, all of whom got a shared nobel prize for proving the heat death, or the "Big Freeze". To understand how they proved this, we have to understand what is a type 1a supernova. This supernova is created when two white dwarfs made from the remnants of a star like our sun collide, releasing a supernova, all of which always releases the same amount of light.
This is key because this way we can see how far away one is by looking at how bright it is, being dimmer the more far away. What these teams did was track supernova to see how quickly they were moving apart, and using these calculations they concluded that the universe is speeding up, which will result in a heat death.
Cycle Cosmology
Cycle cosmology is the idea that the universe is born, it expands, and then collapses as a big crunch, out of which it is born again, and then collapses again, and so on, leading to an endless cycle of universes being created and then collapsing, which used to be popular until it was disproven in 1998. Recent findings however have shed new light on the expansion of the dark universe, and show that dark energy is slowing down! The dark energy is not slowing down by much though, and we still don't understand how dark energy works, but it has definitely raised the support of cycle cosmology, or the big crunch, and many other theories.
Another theory suggested by physicist Roger Penrose mixes the heat death and cycle cosmology is that dark matter will result in a big freeze as per the predictions, and then, out of these conditions of emptiness, a new bug bang will form, which also ends in heat death, out of which another big bang forms, and so on, combining the theories of the big freeze and cycle cosmology together into one.
The Conclusion
While none of the current theories are currently fully proven, cycle cosmology, mirroring the theory, had a brief time of popularity, then lost much support for the theory, and now is making a comeback due to the recent discoveries, which have also put many more theories on the table, other than just the ones discussed in this article. While none have concrete evidence so far, one day we might finally figure out what dark energy is and how the universe ends.
And who knows? Maybe some advanced civilization, possibly our descendants, might even experience the end of the universe.
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” - Marie Curie
No AI used in the making of this article.
