For a while now, scientists have thought that the universe keeps expanding and expanding infinitely. But recent research from an international team of physicists suggests that the cosmos might be building toward a definite and rather dramatic grand finale.
One that wouldn’t be too dissimilar from the literal Big Bang that (theoretically) started it all. It’s a reverse Big Bang that the researchers are calling a “Big Crunch.”
Publishing their research in The Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, physicists Hoang Nhan Luu, Yu-Cheng Qiu, and Henry Tye have combined new observations of dark energy with old theoretical physics ideas to propose a model where the Universe doesn’t expand forever. Instead, it reaches a maximum size at which point it essentially snaps and rubber bands back on itself.
This would cause it to implode and “crunch” down on itself rapidly. They theorize that the universe would only need to expand to 1.7 times its current size. Thankfully, that likely won’t happen anytime soon.
Physicists Predicted When the ‘Big Crunch’ Will End the Universe
The key here is something called the cosmological constant, a theoretical parameter developed by Albert Einstein as part of his theory of general relativity to account for the expansion of the universe. It’s represented with a “λ” symbol.
For the last two decades, λ was assumed to be positive, meaning dark energy, whatever it is, was pushing space apart forever. But new data suggests λ might actually be negative, meaning gravity eventually comes out victorious in this cosmic tug-of-war.
The researchers propose that a field of axions, a lightweight theoretical particle, is currently doing most of the work of accelerating the expansion of the universe. Over time, this push weakens.
Around 11 billion years from now, that push will start to run out of gas. At that point, gravity, fueled up by a negative λ, kicks in, and the Universe starts collapsing. And it won’t be pleasant. A real cosmic calamity.
Unlike the slow, steady, barely perceptible expansion we’re seeing now, the collapse will be fast and brutal. Eight billion years from full stop to singularity, which doesn’t sound like much to us, but in cosmic terms is like a Usain Bolt sprint time.
This is, of course, just a theory. There’s no guarantee of any of it. The cornerstone of it is dark energy, which we know little about. But if the model holds up, it would mean that the universe is going to go out not with a bang, but with a satisfying crunch.
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