Universe, End of

The end of the universe is a concept that has been used to define timelessness itself. Something lasting to the end of the universe used to be synonymous with eternity. Using the latest cosmology theories, contemplating the end of the universe is still considering some of the largest spans of time in human imagination. At this moment in the lifespan of the universe we are standing a short way down a long road with an uncertain ending. Three current possible ends are: an endless expansion, a big crunch, or a big rip of everything in the universe.

Until the early 1900s the universe was thought to be static and eternal. Ideas about the beginning and end of the universe were in the philosophic realm. Although astronomers understood that the stars in the sky were other suns, no one imagined that the hundreds of billions of suns in our galaxy were only a tiny proportion of the suns found in hundreds of billions of galaxies. When Albert Einstein developed his theory of relativity in 1912 he suggested that matter and energy were interchangeable under the right conditions. Calculating the total matter and energy in the universe combined with astronomical observations gives a defined beginning and end.

Researchers have agreed that the universe began as a “big bang” around 14 billion years ago when all matter and energy were collected together in an infinitesimally small point. from that beginning, it suddenly expanded out in all directions. Initially extremely high temperatures dominated it, so that atoms and matter could form only when it had cooled down. That matter then formed into stars and galaxies, and that expansion continues today.

The question of the ultimate fate of the universe is dependent on whether it is open or closed. Either the amount of matter and energy in the universe will allow it to expand forever in all directions from its single point of origin, or the universe has enough matter and energy in it that after expanding a while, it will slow its expansion and gravity will draw everything back into a single infinitesimal point. It is also possible that we do not know enough yet to eliminate other possibilities, such as dark energy ripping the universe apart.