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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Is this how the world will end? Scientists give terrifying glimpse into the 'Big Crunch' - and reveal the exact date it could happen
From alien invasions to robot uprisings, there is no shortage of terrifying ways that the world might end. But scientists have now worked out exactly when one terrifying scenario could bring the universe to a close. According to the 'Big Crunch' theory, the universe will eventually collapse in on itself in a final climactic implosion. As space itself contracts, the temperatures will soar until everything is destroyed in the 'furnace of this cosmic hell'. Finally, the entire cosmos will find itself packed back into an infinitely dense singularity just like it was before the Big Bang. While this was once just a terrifying possibility, new measurements of 'Dark Energy' suggest the Big Crunch is the most likely outcome for the Universe. In a recent study, scientists from Cornell University calculated exactly when the 'Big Crunch' could begin. Thankfully, their calculations suggest we can relax for the time being... that is if something else doesn't cause our demise. What is the Big Crunch? The Big Crunch is essentially the opposite of the Big Bang which started the universe 13.8 billion years ago. After the Big Bang, the universe rapidly expanded as a sea of superheated matter cooled into the familiar particles which make up the cosmos today. During the Big Crunch, this process will run in reverse - compacting space back into a hot, dense state. Scientists believe the current outward expansion of the universe is due to a mysterious force called Dark Energy. If the pushing force of Dark Energy was constant, the universe would keep on expanding and cooling for ever. But now, astronomers are beginning to question whether this really is the case. Based on the latest data, some scientists believe that Dark Energy is weakening, leaving an inward force called the cosmological constant to pull the universe back together. The latest map of the known universe suggests that dark energy is getting weaker, which means the universe will one day fall back in on itself like a ball falling back to Earth under the influence of gravity What is the Big Crunch? The Big Crunch is essentially the reversal of the Big Bang. In the first few moments of the universe, space and time expanded rapidly and cooled to form the matter we now see around us. In the Big Crunch, all this matter will once again contract inwards towards that same infinitely dense point. As it collapses, space will become hot, and matter will be torn into a soup of fundamental particles. Eventually, the cosmos will be compressed into a singularity, just as it was before the Big Bang. Dr Ethan Yu–Cheng, of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told MailOnline: 'It is just like throwing a basketball vertically upwards in daily life. 'The negative cosmological constant acts like the Earth's gravity, which pulls the basketball downward. The basketball will de–accelerate until reaching the maximum height and start to fall.' Would we notice the Big Crunch starting? If it's difficult to imagine what life during the Big Crunch would be like, think about the universe as a balloon with lots of little dots drawn on its surface. As you blow air in, the balloon expands, the surface stretches, and the distance between all the dots grows larger. The Big Crunch is like letting all the air out of the balloon at once, bringing those distant points back together in a rush. However, the process would start very slowly. Dr Hoang Nhan Luu, a researcher at the Donostia International Physics Center, told MailOnline: 'Intelligent civilisations at the scales of solar systems or even galactic scales would not notice any obvious phenomenon because these changes happen at much larger cosmological scales. 'Civilisations like us typically exist on time scales of hundreds to thousands of years while the changes happen on billion–year time scales, so we wouldn't notice any obvious day–to–day phenomenon until the very last moment.' But Dr Luu says that any observant humans still alive in the universe would be able to spot the warning signs. Just as we can look at distant galaxies to see that the universe is expanding, astronomers of the future would be able to see that the galaxies are now rushing towards them. What would the first signs of the Big Crunch be? The first obvious sign that the universe was changing would be that the cosmic temperature would start to increase. Professor Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist from Cornell University, told MailOnline: 'It is the reverse history of our expanding universe.' The universe has been getting colder as it expands, like gas escaping from a pressurised container. During the Big Crunch, this process will play out in reverse and raise the temperature of space. Why will the Big Crunch happen? Some scientists believe that the universe's current expansion is determined by two factors. A negative 'cosmological constant' pulling the universe inwards and an outward force from Dark Energy. If Dark Energy were constant, the universe would keep on expanding forever. However, researchers think that Dark Energy is getting weaker. When it gets weak enough, the cosmological constant will overpower Dark Energy and pull the universe inwards. About 13 billion years from now, Professor Loeb predicts the density of energy in the universe will be about 1,000 times higher than it is now. Just half a billion years after that, it would be another 1,000 times higher, making the universe room temperature. Professor Loeb says: 'At this point it wouldn't be the sun warming that is warming us, but the equivalent of the Cosmic Microwave Background.' Within a few million years, the entire universe would be as hot as the surface of the sun. Eventually, the universe would reach the 'Planck temperature', the highest possible temperature according to our models of physics. Professor Loeb says: 'Needless to say, all humans will burn up in the furnace of this cosmic hell. What will happen to the solar system during the Big Crunch? During the Big Crunch, the universe will eventually become so dense that the planets and stars will be pushed together by the collapse. The only thing that will survive the collapse at first will be black holes. Black holes will actually thrive during the Big Crunch as they feed on a soup of ultra–dense matter That means the planets of the solar system will come closer and closer together until they are crushed together. As space approaches the final moments of the crunch, Professor Loeb says that the universe will be even denser than space inside an atom. As the universe becomes even denser than an atomic nucleus, all matter in the cosmos will once again be squeezed back into this primordial state. The only things in the universe to survive this transition would be black holes, which would thrive as they feed on the dense matter all around them. Finally, this boiling mess of black holes and elementary particles would be crushed into a single infinitely dense point known as the singularity, bringing the universe to an end. When will the Big Crunch happen? Thankfully, scientists believe that the Big Crunch is still far off in the impossibly distant future. Professor Henry Tye, a leading cosmologist from Cornell University, 'We calculate that this will lead to a big crunch about 19.5 billion years from now. 'Knowing that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years, one obtains that the lifespan is 33.3 billion years. In their pre–print paper, Professor Tye and his co–authors, Dr Luu and Dr Yu–Cheng, say that the Big Crunch will begin about 11 billion years from now. The crunching phase would then last around 8.5 billion years before the universe completely collapses into a singularity. Given that Homo sapiens have only been around for at most 300,000 years, that gives us plenty of time to relax. Likewise, while it might not necessarily be a comforting thought, it is almost certain that humanity will have been wiped out long before then in any case. Professor Tye says: 'Before the big crunch, at about 5 billion years from now, the sun will use up its fuel and start growing dramatically. 'Its outer layers will expand until they engulf much of the solar system, as it becomes what astronomers call a red giant. Eventually, it fades to a tiny white dwarf. 'To survive, human beings have to move to the edge of our solar system or beyond. We have a few billion years' time to prepare for that trip.' THE BIG BANG THEORY DESCRIBES THE BEGINNING AND EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE The Big Bang Theory is a cosmological model, a theory used to describe the beginning and the evolution of our universe. It says that the universe was in a very hot and dense state before it started to expand 13,7 billion years ago. This theory is based on fundamental observations. In 1920, Hubble observed that the distance between galaxies was increasing everywhere in the universe. This means that galaxies had to be closer to each other in the past. In 1964, Wilson and Penzias discovered the cosmic background radiation, which is a like a fossil of radiation emitted during the beginning of the universe, when it was hot and dense. The cosmic background radiation is observable everywhere in the universe. The composition of the universe - that is, the the number of atoms of different elements - is consistent with the Big Bang Theory. So far, this theory is the only one that can explain why we observe an abundance of primordial elements in the universe.
Sky News AU
10-07-2025
- Science
- Sky News AU
‘It's so silly': Study reveals how long the universe has left until the ‘Big Crunch' occurs
According to a new study, researchers predict the universe only has 20 billion years left before what's been dubbed the 'Big Crunch' will occur. Sky News host Freya Leach discussed the study's findings. 'It's so silly – I mean the Earth, according to this article, has been around for 13.8 billion years, so we're not even halfway through Earth's life cycle, so you hear people stressing about the end of the world,' she said. 'It's ok, guys. We've got another 20 billion years.'
Perth Now
09-07-2025
- Science
- Perth Now
Universe 'death date' is a lot sooner than thought
The end of the universe will happen far sooner than thought. A team of scientists from the US and China have established that the universe will reach its 'death date' and no longer expand once it turns 33.3 billion years old. As the universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old at present, it leaves just over 19 billion years to go before everything ends in what boffins describe as a 'Big Crunch'. Experts at New York's Cornell University and Shanghai's Jiao Tong University have created a new cosmic model that suggests that dark energy - the force believed to be responsible for the universe's expansion - will weaken over time and ultimately succumb to gravity. Scientists are still attempting to prove that dark energy actually exists but the theory contradicts previous ideas that the universe could continue indefinitely. NASA's Chelsea Gohd said: "What exactly is dark energy? The short answer is: We don't know. But we do know that it exists, it's making the universe expand at an accelerating rate, and approximately 68.3 to 70 per cent of the universe is dark energy."
Daily Mirror
08-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
'Death date' of the universe unveiled as scientists say clock ticking for Earth
Physicists from Cornell University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have detailed how the universe will come to an end and how it will be like a 'reverse Big Bang' A 'death date' for the universe has been revealed as a new study has claimed that the universe will begin to shrink seven billion years from now. Scientists have stated that the clock is ticking for planet Earth after it reached its peak size, and things will start to contract until 'everything collapses back into a single point'. The theory has just been published by physicists from Cornell University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The catastrophic event has been dubbed the Big Crunch - and likened to a reverse Big Bang. They studied data from various astronomical surveys including the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. But it seems the universe will take quite some time to shrink. The so called Big Crunch will take place in approximately 34 billion years, so there's plenty of time to get your affairs in order. But anyone still around by that point faces a tricky time - the universe will expand like a "rubber band", they outline, causing everything to "snap back together". According to other research, there could be nobody left to experience it. Earth will be "engulfed by our dying sun" in approximately seven billion years. But Sir Isaac Newton predicted we've got not much time left at all - he said the world will end in 2060 in a chilling letter scrawled above a maths calculation more than 300 years ago. The renowned scientist, who discovered gravity and invented calculus, wrote about a second coming of Christ in just over four decades time - marking an end to life as we know it in 2060. Newton wrote this ominous warning on a letter slip in 1704. Born in 1643, Newton was considered an insightful theologian who had a life-long interest in the existence of God and religion. He based a lot of his religious writings on his readings of the Bible and believed in biblical visions of the Apocalypse — especially the Battle of Armageddon. Writing under the alias 'Jehovah Sanctus Unus' predicted the world would "reset" at 2060 at which point the Earth will once again become 'the Kingdom of God', the Daily Mail reports. Newton wrote: "So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year. "And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner." In another prediction referencing the date 2060, Newton stated: "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, [and] by doing so bring the sacred prophecies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. Christ comes as a thief in the night, [and] it is not for us to know the times [and] seasons [which] God hath put into his own breast."
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New study claims the universe will start shrinking in 7 billion years
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. How will the world end? While some, like Robert Frost, have waxed poetic about the end of life on Earth—fire or ice—others have been looking to science to solve the mystery. Even still, others have been looking at the bigger picture, trying to figure out when the entire universe will end. Now, a new study claims that the universe itself might start shrinking within the next 7 billion years, leading to what scientists call 'the Big Crunch.' The study was published by physicists from Cornell University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and several other institutions. Using data collected from many different astronomical surveys, including the Dark Energy Survey, the researchers have created a new model that predicts our universe will end with what scientists have long theorized will be a 'Big Crunch.' The model suggests the universe will end roughly 33.3 billion years after the Big Bang. Today's Top Deals XGIMI Prime Day deals feature the new MoGo 4 and up to 42% off smart projectors Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Using that date, the researchers then began looking backward. So far, the universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old. Based on that number and the model's prediction of when the universe will end, we have roughly 20 billion years before the universe collapses in on itself. This study, and the theory of the 'Big Crunch,' challenges long held assumptions that the universe will expand forever, eventually leading to a 'Big Freeze.' Instead, the researchers estimate that the universe will continue to expand for another 7 billion years. At that point, the universe will then begin contracting. Essentially, it will collapse in on itself until a single point remains, destroying everything. It's an interesting and somewhat terrifying theory, even if we aren't expecting it to happen in our lifetime. One easy way to think about it is to imagine the universe as a massive rubber band. As the universe expands, the rubber band stretches. But then it eventually reaches a point where it can't be stretched anymore, forcing the band to become stronger than its expansion force. This then causes everything to snap back together. It's a bit of a sad way for the universe to end, and I can't imagine what it would actually look like if there was any way to see it taking place. Luckily, it's not really something we have to worry about, and this research is far from actual confirmation that this is what will happen. For all we know, the theories could be incorrect, and the universe could indeed keep expanding forever. More Top Deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 See the
