What awaits our universe at the end of 3 possible scenarios

How it all started and what will happen next

We know the past of our universe, about 14 billion years ago in the Big Bang time, space and everything that surrounds us, formed from a tiny point. We know about the present: watching the movement of galaxies, scientists have come to the conclusion that under the influence of dark energy, the universe is expanding at a constant acceleration. But what will be the future and what will happen to our universe end? On this score cosmologists have three main theories: Big freeze, a large gap and great compression.

To understand them, imagine two balls connected by a taut rubber band - a galaxy which are attracted by gravity. By the balls attached hooks - they show a dark energy, the repulsive universes. If you copy all of this many times, you get a system that resembles our universe. And its future depends on the result of the confrontation of the two opposing forces - elastics and hooks.

1. big freeze

In this scenario, the force that separates the balls, so great that it will stretch the rubber band until it completely loses its elasticity. Do not hold the gravity balls galaxies moving away, and the universe is still expanding and expanding. And it will happen as long as the galaxies do not fall apart on the lonely

planet and stars, "floating" in infinite space.

And light energy emitted by them, not enough to form new stars. As a result, the universe will become increasingly darker and colder, until it comes to a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Then, and come great freezing, or heat death of the universe.

2. a large gap

If the repulsive force of the balls will be very large, the gum is not stretched, and immediately will tear. In this scenario, the universe will continue to accelerate further, will overcome the force of gravity, and galaxy simply disintegrate.

Due to the absence of electromagnetic and nuclear ties even atoms will cease to exist, scattering into tiny particles. This will be a big break.

3. big Crunch

In the third scenario wins gum balls tightening. In such a gravity developments not only stops the expansion of the universe, but also changes it in the opposite direction. Galaxy rush towards each other, gather in a huge cluster, where gravity becomes even stronger.

Stars also face increases the temperature and size of the universe decrease sharply, shrinking to such an extent that even begin to be squeezed atoms and subatomic particles. In the end everything collapses into a singularity - a tiny, hot and very dense point. This is a great compression.

There is also the theory of the Big rebound, according to which a state of the universe preceded the Big Bang. Find out how many bounces it was before and what might happen in the future, it is impossible, because each of them erases all evidence of the previous universe.

It will all end

Which of these scenarios will most likely depend on the exact shape of the universe, the amount of dark energy, which it contains, and expansion of intensity.

Current observations indicate that we are moving in the direction of the Big freezing. But do not rush to stock mittens: the day when the universe cooled down and all the processes it will stop, there will still very, very long time. Approximately 10¹⁰⁰ years old.

If you are interested in this topic, you can read the full version of the video on TED.