The universe is made up of a sky full of stars, the sun, and countless planets and moons. Our Earth is just a tiny part of it. Countless stars like the sun, countless planets like Earth, moons, comets and various unknown objects are scattered across the vast expanse of space.
But what is the future of these cosmic objects? Will they persist forever, or will they too eventually decline with the flow of time? Will the planets and stars orbiting each other one day vanish, or will new cosmic existences be born from some other source?
Scientists have been conducting research for a long time to find answers to these questions. Various inquiries are under way into the universe’s creation, evolution and possible ultimate fate. New research keeps bringing forward various theories and possibilities about the universe’s future.
Recently, however, scientists have offered a new estimate for when the universe’s final fate might arrive. A new study says the universe could head toward destruction in around 33.3 billion years. The research was conducted by scientists from Cornell University in the United States, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and other institutions.
According to the research, the universe’s expansion could at some point stop. A process of contraction would then begin. Eventually, everything would be drawn toward a single point. This event is called the “Big Crunch.” Scientists believe it would be something like the reverse of the “Big Bang.”
The universe is currently around 13.8 billion years old. According to the researchers’ calculations, Earth and other planets have roughly another 20 billion years before their existence faces a crisis.
The study is built on a theory that compares the universe to a stretched rubber band. According to this idea, the more the universe expands, the more it will eventually lose the energy driving that expansion, at which point everything will begin contracting inward again.
At the centre of this theory is dark energy. Scientists say this mysterious force, which makes up around 70 percent of the universe, is the main driver of this expansion.
The new research suggests, however, that dark energy may not be constant — it could change over time. As a result, the universe’s expansion will not continue forever. According to the new model, it will keep expanding for some time yet, but its pace will gradually slow.
According to the researchers’ calculations, once the universe grows to around 69 percent larger than its current size, its expansion could stop and contraction could gradually begin.
However, scientists believe Earth is unlikely to still exist by that time. According to another study’s forecast, the sun will burn out within roughly the next 20 billion years, and our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy. And that is how, one day, everything will eventually be destroyed.