10-15 Billion years ago, the universe is born. 30-50 billion years later, this is how it will end.
The death of the universe. Something so unimaginably massive is almost completely above our comprehension. The universe is as some speculate a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years.Consisting of some 100 billion galaxys with some 100 trillion stars others speculate there could be as many as sextillion stars(7 × 10^22) As a small comparison, there are more stars in the universe than all grains of sand on the entire planet.( talk about being truly insignificant) Its hard to imagine something so large could ever end, but alas everything has to end someday.
So how will it end? how does something so massive just cease to exist? Well, lets explore some of the possibilities.
The Theory of the big Chill or Freeze
The scientific community was rocked to the very core when they discovered that the universe was expanding, rapidly as it seemed. It was speculated early on that the universe would run out of steam on eventually that caused the initial big bang. That it would eventually slow down and order itself out. Well, this is no longer that case. The scenario goes something like this. The universe will forever keep expanding. Eventually it will come to a point where some 40 to 50 billion years from now as dark energy continuously expands all the galaxy farther and farther away. Eventually they will become to distant from eachother, it would take light and heat eons to travel into the vastness of space. At which point in time not only will galaxys be so far apart, stars will also start to become extinct. Everyone knows how a star is made right?9compression of heated gas coming together under the force of gravity condensing the cloud of gas until its hot enough to generate nuclear fusion, thus a star is born!) At this point in time there will be hardly little no gases left. Also with the gravity being so far apart, gravity will have an obsolete effect and the matter around it, being unable to pull together any remaining gases. All that would remain is darkness and the very dim light of any remaining dead stars such as white dwarfs,brown dwarfs, megnatars and anything else clinging on to whatever is left. It will be a very cold...very very dark place indeed. Lets move on.
The Big Rip
Similar in the execution of the above scenario, but will very different results. Essentially, instead of freezing to death, we are ripped to shreds. Everything, that means anything and everything. Galaxies, stars, planets, plants animals,molecules even atoms. All matter,Nothing survives.What a chilling and presumably painful way to go. Basically, as the density of dark energy increases with time which would cause the rate of acceleration to increase ten fold. Which would cause everything to be ripped apart by the phantom energy force and shooting apart from each other. expansion rate then becomes infinite. Yikks, Lets hope this never happens.
The Big Crunch
Ok so ether your gonna freeze to death, or maybe be torn apart. How can it get any worse? Well, I'm glad you asked. Okay for the big crunch to work, lets assume for a moment the universe expands indefinitely. Now imagine that gravity( the beast that is is)Stops the process of expansion and pulls everything back in towards a singularity( similar to what the universe was before the big bang). fundamentally the universe has just collapsed into itself(CURSE YOU GRAVITY!). What this means is that well...we start over. We would be living in an oscillatory universe. Mean that we live in an infinite universe with an infinite amount of sequences. Scientists speculate that the universe would be never ending. Starting as a singularity, inflation takes over expands the universe faster than the speed of light, Stars are born, galaxies are born, planets..ect..ect. Then some 40 billion years later everything is pulled back together in to another singularity and the process starts all over, forever.( which universe are we? number fiver hundred and ninty billion? 10? a trillion? or even number 1?..ohh profound)
The last one I'd like to discuss is the Multiverse theory( With no end)
This ones my favorite theory. What this means is that our universe is just one among and infinite others in a forever ending vastness of open space spread out over and endless distance. Each "universe" would consist of matter or antimatter. As each universe expands they will collide with one another, matter and antimatter would then annihilate one another and possibly cause the birth of another big bang in the formation of a new universe. This is hypothesize to be a never ending chain of reactions. Each Universe is suspected to be ether similar or very different than ours. Each universe would be chemically different, elements can be comprised of different properties( Gravity might not be gravity, Light might not be light, a star might not be quite a star). Others would go as far and suggest that each universe would have carbon copies of ourselves. Leading different lives for every decision we don't make..or something like that. The possibilities are infinite.
Thus brings me to my conclusion. The most commonly accepted theory is the big freeze, this seems to be the inevitable fate of our universe. But my point is just to discuss these possibilities. What I want to know is for us, as a species what does this mean? Assuming we survive this long which is very unlikely. Are we doomed to one day face our fate as unpreventable and simply just die out. Does this mean ultimately life is meaningless when face with such a horrific realization? Even if this is the great fate our our universe, whats not to say there are others out there? What if Multiverses do exist?If we do survive for this long whats not to say we won't have the technology developed to travel into another universe to save our asses, is it even possible?
Are we doomed? Whats your take on these theories? Which is most logical? Which isent practical? Cant wait to hear your take on this.
The death of the universe. Something so unimaginably massive is almost completely above our comprehension. The universe is as some speculate a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years.Consisting of some 100 billion galaxys with some 100 trillion stars others speculate there could be as many as sextillion stars(7 × 10^22) As a small comparison, there are more stars in the universe than all grains of sand on the entire planet.( talk about being truly insignificant) Its hard to imagine something so large could ever end, but alas everything has to end someday.
So how will it end? how does something so massive just cease to exist? Well, lets explore some of the possibilities.
The Theory of the big Chill or Freeze
The scientific community was rocked to the very core when they discovered that the universe was expanding, rapidly as it seemed. It was speculated early on that the universe would run out of steam on eventually that caused the initial big bang. That it would eventually slow down and order itself out. Well, this is no longer that case. The scenario goes something like this. The universe will forever keep expanding. Eventually it will come to a point where some 40 to 50 billion years from now as dark energy continuously expands all the galaxy farther and farther away. Eventually they will become to distant from eachother, it would take light and heat eons to travel into the vastness of space. At which point in time not only will galaxys be so far apart, stars will also start to become extinct. Everyone knows how a star is made right?9compression of heated gas coming together under the force of gravity condensing the cloud of gas until its hot enough to generate nuclear fusion, thus a star is born!) At this point in time there will be hardly little no gases left. Also with the gravity being so far apart, gravity will have an obsolete effect and the matter around it, being unable to pull together any remaining gases. All that would remain is darkness and the very dim light of any remaining dead stars such as white dwarfs,brown dwarfs, megnatars and anything else clinging on to whatever is left. It will be a very cold...very very dark place indeed. Lets move on.
The Big Rip
Similar in the execution of the above scenario, but will very different results. Essentially, instead of freezing to death, we are ripped to shreds. Everything, that means anything and everything. Galaxies, stars, planets, plants animals,molecules even atoms. All matter,Nothing survives.What a chilling and presumably painful way to go. Basically, as the density of dark energy increases with time which would cause the rate of acceleration to increase ten fold. Which would cause everything to be ripped apart by the phantom energy force and shooting apart from each other. expansion rate then becomes infinite. Yikks, Lets hope this never happens.
The Big Crunch
Ok so ether your gonna freeze to death, or maybe be torn apart. How can it get any worse? Well, I'm glad you asked. Okay for the big crunch to work, lets assume for a moment the universe expands indefinitely. Now imagine that gravity( the beast that is is)Stops the process of expansion and pulls everything back in towards a singularity( similar to what the universe was before the big bang). fundamentally the universe has just collapsed into itself(CURSE YOU GRAVITY!). What this means is that well...we start over. We would be living in an oscillatory universe. Mean that we live in an infinite universe with an infinite amount of sequences. Scientists speculate that the universe would be never ending. Starting as a singularity, inflation takes over expands the universe faster than the speed of light, Stars are born, galaxies are born, planets..ect..ect. Then some 40 billion years later everything is pulled back together in to another singularity and the process starts all over, forever.( which universe are we? number fiver hundred and ninty billion? 10? a trillion? or even number 1?..ohh profound)
The last one I'd like to discuss is the Multiverse theory( With no end)
This ones my favorite theory. What this means is that our universe is just one among and infinite others in a forever ending vastness of open space spread out over and endless distance. Each "universe" would consist of matter or antimatter. As each universe expands they will collide with one another, matter and antimatter would then annihilate one another and possibly cause the birth of another big bang in the formation of a new universe. This is hypothesize to be a never ending chain of reactions. Each Universe is suspected to be ether similar or very different than ours. Each universe would be chemically different, elements can be comprised of different properties( Gravity might not be gravity, Light might not be light, a star might not be quite a star). Others would go as far and suggest that each universe would have carbon copies of ourselves. Leading different lives for every decision we don't make..or something like that. The possibilities are infinite.
Thus brings me to my conclusion. The most commonly accepted theory is the big freeze, this seems to be the inevitable fate of our universe. But my point is just to discuss these possibilities. What I want to know is for us, as a species what does this mean? Assuming we survive this long which is very unlikely. Are we doomed to one day face our fate as unpreventable and simply just die out. Does this mean ultimately life is meaningless when face with such a horrific realization? Even if this is the great fate our our universe, whats not to say there are others out there? What if Multiverses do exist?If we do survive for this long whats not to say we won't have the technology developed to travel into another universe to save our asses, is it even possible?
Are we doomed? Whats your take on these theories? Which is most logical? Which isent practical? Cant wait to hear your take on this.
