Crunch, Rip, or Freeze?

[Max Headroom]

Your resident space-lover is back with another question to pose. We all know that everything must come to an end. From a good show, to us, to life, to our Solar System, Galaxy, and eventually even the Universe will end. Our galaxy will be dead long before the Universe as it's set to collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years(or a few millyards if you use the long system).

Now, here comes the fun part, the death of our Universe. There are many theories on how, feel free do discuss any, but here are the three most commonly thought ones.

First, the "Big Crunch". This is when gravity wins the fight with dark matter/dark energy & pulls the Universe back in on itself, crushing everything and collapsing to a singularity of size it was before the Big Bang. This theory is the least accepted of the three.

Next, we have the "Big Rip". This is the one I like, as it sounds cool. It's when dark matter/dark energy wins the fight with gravity, and we continue accelerating(we already are) outwards. This continues until Galaxies start to fly away from each other faster than light, so when you look into the sky all you see is black. Then, we go so fast everything rips apart, right down to the atoms that hold us together, and the nuclei that holds them together. We'll then big one big pile of fast-moving plasma-soup. Oh joy.

Finally, we have the "Big Freeze". This seems like the most reasonable outcome. Generally, what will happen is we'll continue accelerating, but not get faster than light. The sky will still go all black, as we're so far apart from other stars. Eventually, we'll become so far apart everything will cease to function, from life, to the formation of stars. It'll just be one big, empty Universe. This isn't supposed to happen for up to 300 trillion years, though.

Personally, I think the "Big Freeze" is how it's all going down. But what do you think? Which idea do you think will happen? Any other ideas I haven't listed you'd like to discuss? Lets go.

 

[SalvIsWin]

From what I know about the universe, rapid expansion and eventual heat death of the universe is the most likely conclusion at this point. It's pretty much the default position at this point because we know space is expanding, we know that matter is spreading further and further apart, and we know that energy cannot be sustained indefinitely if this continues.

There are theories like the universe collapsing upon itself, however there really isn't sufficient evidence to suggest this is probable, same with the idea of matter somehow traveling faster than the speed of light relative to the space it inhabits.

 

[Albert T]

The above poster's suggestion of rapid expansion seems like what's happening. However, the original concepts suggested are all very interesting and are worth looking into, which is what I plan to do because its never too early to plan for an Armageddon that's coming my way in a trillion years.

 

[lenguy]

Hey,would you look at this! More conversations about the universe. I'm game. Lets go.

Crunch,rip,or freeze? In my non-expert opinion, I believe only two of the options are likely. That being the Big Rip or the Big freeze. You must be saying well woah woah lenguy,what makes you say that!? Well,I will tell you,so let me elaborate.

A crunch won't happen. In order for this the effects of gravity have to out weight that of Dark Energy. Gravity is an attractive force that pulls on much of the physical objects in space. Now consider these physical objects take up barely a percent of the total massive of the universe and Dark Energy takes up 70%......70% of the entire mass of the universe this all but makes the Big Crunch all but out of the question. Which leaves the next two.

The Big Rip. Man,first off,what a grim way to go. Being ripped apart atom by atom by phantom energy? Seriously,not cool. This so gruesome that nothing survives! Not even atoms. Everything is ripped apart and I can only imagine how painful that might be,yikes.

Okay as dark as this sounds,will it happen? I don't think so. For this to happen,everything will have to be speeding away from us much faster than they currently are. Super massive acceleration at its best. However,a lot of theorists don't believe this will be the ultimate fate of our universe. Lets hope they are correct.

The Big Freeze. I think this one is most plausible. Gradually,over time as galaxies get further and further apart it will take light so long to reach anything that it won't even matter. As the supply of gas needed for star formation is slowly depleted. The universe will grow cold and dim as every star slowly dies out and fades from existence. As stars fade,so to will life and eventually all remains will be black holes,but with nothing to feed on,they to will eventually evaporate and then fade as well. Eventually this will result in the final heat death of the universe. Not as violent as the big rip but it is,quite literally a chilling scenario. A calm death to a majestic expansion of time and matter. I believe that this is how it will ultimately come to pass. Below I took the liberty of adding in a graphical timeline of these periods,when they are expected to happen and how long for(Source:Wikipedia). An interesting look. Curious enough it seems that even though the universe is though of as "dead" up till this point,as far as Wikipedia is concerned,there is still activity wayyyyy far into the future.

10^10^26 to 10^10^76 years from now we get iron stars due to cold fusion as a result of quantum tunneling and black holes begin to form again. Iron stars then collapse into neutron stars as well. Meaning,after so much time that has passed,is it possible that the universe may find a way to breathe new life into itself? Fascinating to think about really. Interesting read...even if you don't quite understand much of it lol.