The universe began with an explosion, but what are its prospects for ending? Scientists have several hypotheses. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Scientists have a pretty good idea of how our universe began: According to the Big Bang theory, an infinitesimally small, dense point rapidly expanded 13.8 billion years ago, and the universe has been expanding at an accelerating rate ever since. However, trying to imagine where our universe might be heading, or how and when it might eventually end, remains a subject of intense debate.
“In physics, we can only trust our ideas and theories if we have data that tests and confirms them,” Nemanja Kaloper, a physics professor at the University of California, Davis, told Live Science in an email. “[But] in cosmology, this is extremely difficult because experiments are passive — we can’t reproduce the universe to observe what happens and improve the data as we see fit.”
So when will the universe end? It depends on which theory you think makes the most sense. Two of the most common theories are called the Big Freeze and the Big Crunch.
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