The Ultimate Fate of the Universe - 3 Possible Scenarios on How the Universe Might Get Destroyed
The universe that we have all come to know and love, that keeps surprising us with fascinating discoveries the more we look deeper into space, has a lifespan and will die eventually. How do we know the universe will sooner or later die, what insights and clues have cosmologist and scientist gathered to fully understand the ultimate fate of our universe. The predicted end will be a series of gloomy events as it will see the end of the formation of stars, black holes will aggressively affect their environment before they disappear into nothing.
Our universe is expanding at an alarming rate, and scientists are suggesting that the repulsive force of dark energy is playing a pivotal role in the universe’s accelerated expansion. The true nature of dark energy and its properties is completely unknown, but scientists have postulated theories to explain three scenarios that could lead to the apocalyptic end of our universe, in the very distant future.
Albert Einstein was first to have considered the impact of dark energy in the universe’s expansion; but he later debunks the idea, dismissing it as a stupid concept.
The BIG RIP
Since the big bang occurred, our universe has ever since been in a state of continuous expansion, and this is due to unknown reasons. Here, new spaces are created everywhere, as well as in-between galaxies which also expands. Space inherent in galaxies become larger as well, but in this case, gravitational strength is enough for it to retain its form. In the scenario of a big rip, this expansion will continue to accelerate to a period where space keeps getting large, at an extremely fast rate, and gravity cannot hold things together anymore. The result - “BIG RIP”
The strength variation dark energy possesses over time will be crucial, because the faster and stronger the repulsive forces grow; the higher the possibility of a Big Rip occurrence in the universe.
Simply put:
Big Rip occurs when the repelling force of dark energy has the ability to surpass gravitation and everything in between. Gravitationally bound bodies such as solar systems, planets galaxies, and stars become ripped apart.
This will result in, larger structures such as galaxies to be ripped apart because space within a single object amplifies ’s pretty fast. Then bodies such as stars, black holes and planets start to die since their gravity won’t be enough to retain their form, they vanish into their constituents.
At the end of this catastrophic scenario, space’s expansion will be quicker than the speed of light, at this point, atoms will be significantly affected, as they will be dispersed. Once space starts expanding at this speed (faster than the speed of light) making it impossible for any particle to interact with other particles in the entire universe. At this point, the universe will dissolve into several particles drifting in a timeless universe, unable to interact or touch anything...scary!
Heat Death
The Heat Death is another hypothetical cosmological model about the proposed fate of our universe. The idea stems from an increasing entropy, which continues till a state where the transfer of thermodynamic energy becomes impossible. Due to the uniform energy and temperature distribution in the entire universe, a concept known as thermodynamic equilibrium.
The matter that remains complete, is transformed into radiation over a lengthy time frame, while our universe as we know it, forever keeps expanding. While our universe keeps getting bigger, matter gradually decays and stretches out, at some point in time, where available gas clouds required to create stars will be completely used up. Then our universe will turn black, what’s left of the Stars will die, black holes, gradually will degenerate and vanish over lengthy periods of years (trillions) through the gradual procedure called “Hawking radiation”.
The heat death is similar to a bowl of lukewarm water, which is a combination of two ordered states - cold water and hot water. When both states come in contact, the hot waters' energy gets lowered, while the cold water gets heated. As this interaction continues, the temperature of the water molecule becomes uniform. Hence, the vibrating water molecules become spatially uniform. At the phase, the system will no longer be capable of carrying out any thermal or mechanical work consequently, energy transfer will no longer take place in the system.
Back to the heat death subject, which becomes apparent as a result of highest entropy. Due the accelerated expansion experienced by the universe due to the presence of dark energy, planets, galaxies and star will stray farther and farther apart. Astrology will eventually become impossible due to the immense divide between our galaxy from other interplanetary bodies. At this point, stars will run out of fuel and turn into white dwarfs, black holes or neutrons depending on their individual masses.
As stars turn into white dwarfs and black holes due to the lack of the required resources to support them, the universe will turn dark. Suns will die, and black holes will disappear; and when this is all over, only light particles and photons, as well as dilute gases will remain. All activities will cease in our universe, at this stage, entropy will be at its highest, marking the death of the universe.
Big Bounce/Big Crunch
The most encouraging scenario of the three cosmological hypothetical model of the fate of our universe. Assuming dark energy was less in the universe than it actually is, or if there is a decrease in its quantity over time; this, over time, will make gravity the strongest force in the universe. Trillions of years ahead, the rate at which the universe is expanding will decrease and eventually come to a halt.
After this happens, the previous expansion the universe experience previously will reverse to a rapid contraction period. Here, galaxies will run towards each other, amalgamating, while the universe contracts and gets smaller in size. And a small universe translates to a hot universe, as temperatures will rise simultaneously everywhere.
100,000 years prior the big bounce event, radiations at the background will be a lot hotter than surfaces of a majority of the stars, meaning they will burn from outside, moments before the big bounce, atoms cores will be torn apart before gigantic black holes engulf everything. All existing black holes will come together and integrate into one mega supermassive black hole, which possesses the weight of the entire universe. And in the final moments before the Big Bounce, this mega black hole will consume everything (the universe), and itself as well.
References
Wikipedia | Heat Death of the Universe
Phy.Org | The fate of the Universe - heat death, Big rip or cosmic consciousness
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