By: Robert Fidler

Ah, look up upon the night sky, a vast expanse of stars where our planet floats as if a small speck of dust upon a vast, vast ocean.  The massive structures in the heavens, the galaxies, the nebulas, the superclusters.  The massive objects seem immortal, existing this way always and will continue for eternity.  However, that is not the case, our universe had a beginning and it most certainly will have an end.  Now come with me as we travel to the edge of the universe, with science and imagination, and see how our universe will die.

Now, firstly thanks to our understanding of quantum mechanics there are three major theories on how the universe will end; The Big Rip, The Big Crunch, and Heat Death.  The first is The Big Rip Scenario, I’m fairly sure you know what happens here, but first we have to touch on the most important factor in all of these ideas, expansion.  See the universe is expanding, space everywhere is expanding at the same ever accelerating rate.  This is due to a force call Dark Energy; which is codename for; “We have know idea what this is.”  Now in the Big Rip the expansion of space increases to a point where gravity can no longer compensate.  First large objects such as galaxy clusters and galaxies are ripped apart.  Then smaller objects such as black holes, stars, and planets are broken apart, as their gravity can no longer counteract the expansion of space.  Eventually the expansion of space will exceed the speed of light!  At this point atoms themselves will be ripped apart, and the universe will dissolve into a strange timeless state where nothing can interact with anything else ever.

Now let’s proceed to slightly less depressing subject, The Big Crunch.  In a nutshell this is the complete opposite of the Big Rip, go figure…  In this idea either; our knowledge about quantum mechanics is wrong or the levels of dark energy decrease over time. However it occurs gravity will once again become the dominant force in the universe.  When this occurs the expansion of space will slow down and eventually come to a stop.  At this point the universe will begin to contract.  As the universe decreases in size, it rises in temperature, a few million years before the Big Crunch the background radiation will be so hot that it will be hotter than the surface of most suns, literally baking them from the outside in.  And a few seconds before the Big Crunch all the black holes in the universe will combine together into one ultra-black hole with will contain the entire mass of the universe.  Finally a few microseconds before the Big Crunch this black hole will swallow the universe, including itself…….. Thats… weird.  However from this, strange event, a new universe will be born, and the Big Crunch theory states this has happened many times already in a never ending cycle of new universes.  Slightly less sad but still a bit, but don’t worry I’ve saved the best for last!

Now to understand the third and final theory, Heat Death, we need to understand the much beloved field of Thermodynamics.  If you took physics I’m sorry.  Now what we have to understand is Entropy, now the universe always wants to be in highest possible state of Entropy or randomness.  For example if you take a cup of hot coffee outside on a cold day the heat from the coffee will slowly dissipate out into the surrounding air until it is the same temperature.  In short that is how the universe works, concentrations of high energy flowing to place of low energy.  In the Heat Death Scenario the expansion of the universe continues but does not reach the level of the Big Rip.  Slowly all the remaining stars will burn out until the last star dies all the available fuel used up, then Black Holes will slowly evaporate away through a process known as Hawking Radiation, know who that’s named after?  Then eventually the last proton will decay, and the universe will be at maximum entropy, everything will be the same everywhere and nothing will be possible ever.

Now all this talk of the death of the Universe may sound sad but you shouldn’t be disheartened, these events won’t take place for trillions and trillions of years.  And beyond that you should be glad because us humans.  Small little people living out our lives on a tiny speck of dust, floating in a vast infinite ocean, can understand our universe to such a degree that we are not only able to know how it works, but to even imagine how it could die.  Thank You.