How Our Universe Will End - Great Animation

A Big Freeze, Rip or Crunch: how will the Universe end? Many theoretical physicists believe the Universe could end between 2.8 billion and 22 billion years from now, but they can't agree on its ultimate fate. The "most precise measurement" ever made recently suggested our Universe is expanding much faster than previously thought, casting doubts on earlier predictions and even calling into question Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Just as the Universe started after a Big Bang, astronomers are now attempting to study this expansion to predict how the Universe will ultimately end.

The rate of this expansion may eventually tear the Universe apart, forcing it to end in a Big Rip. Alternatively, the Universe could 'shrink', decrease or decay, effectively reversing the Big Bang and destroying the Universe in a Big Crunch. A third theory is described as the Big Freeze.

Many theoretical physicists believe the Universe will end, and it could happen at any point between 2.8 billion years and 22 billion years from now. Certain researchers even suggest the process of its demise has already begun.

"For a long time scientists, including Albert Einstein, thought the Universe was static and infinite," explained Thomas Kitching, lecturer in Astrophysics at University College London.

"Observations have since shown it is in fact expanding, and at an accelerating rate. This means it must have originated from a more compact state that we call the Big Bang, implying that time does have a beginning." And it will likely have an end.

By studying ancient light, astronomers can see the so-called "relic radiation" from the Big Bang, also known as cosmic microwave background. As the name suggests, Einstein’s special theory of relativity, shows that time is relative. Kitching continued: "the faster you move relative to me, the slower time will pass for you relative to my perception of time." This means that in our Universe of expanding galaxies, spinning stars and planets, experiences of time vary and everything’s past, present and future is relative.

Cosmologists have used this theory, as well as data from studies of cosmic background radiation, to determine the 'cosmic age' of the Universe to be around 13.799 billion years old, and this can help predict how, and when, the Universe could end.

The first theory claims the Universe will end with a Big Rip, as the pull of the Universe's expansion gets stronger than the gravity it contains. This would tear apart galaxies, followed by black holes, stars and even our own planet.

Earth, and humanity with it, could slowly decay into radiation, collapse in on itself or be ripped apart as the Universe's expansion ramps up. This would leave the Universe full of single, disconnected particles.

Another theory about the potential end of the Universe relates to the so-called ‘Big Crunch’.

If, instead of expanding forever, matter in the Universe reaches a point where it starts to decrease over time, it could cause gravity to become the dominant force. This would ultimately cause the Universe to shrink and cause stars, planets and entire galaxies to collide into each other and the Universe would, for all intents and purposes, collapse in on itself.

Put simply, if the expansion of the Universe slows to a crawl and the Big Bang happens in reverse, everything will implode back into a singularity.

The third theory states that the Universe could end due to a Big Freeze. Also somewhat conversely called 'Heat Death', this scenario is believed to be the most likely according to what we already know about physics and the Universe.

This term comes from the theory that, in the Universe and other isolated systems, entropy will increase until it reaches a "maximum value". Entropy comes from a principle of thermodynamics that covers energy and specifically refers to the idea that everything in the Universe eventually moves from order to disorder. As a result, entropy is the measurement of that shift.

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