End of the Universe?

[Midnight Circus]

How do you think the universe will end?

With not a bang, but a whimper.

Does it really matter as long as humanity goes with it?
That in and of itself would be a blessing.

 

[Headsnap]

Nigga Please

 

[masterandticklee]

The theories mentioned earlier are great and I think the most widely accepted are of the bunch are the "big freeze" and the "big crunch". The universe ending in either manner is dependant on the amount of matter in the universe. Sufficient matter in the universe will result in gravity counteracting the "expanding" force brought on initially by the big bang. Gravity is an attractive only force. Think of a fire cracker exploding in all directions(big bang) then suddenly gravity acts to bring all of those pieces back together, that is what the big crunch is like. Those hot pieces of the fire cracker all brought back to a single point, hence the "hot". If the fire cracker's explosion is not counteracted by gravity it would do what one would normally expect. Pieces everywhere spreading it's initial heat all over your backyard(freeze)
The big question is: How much matter do we have. This wikipedia article should spread a little light on that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

GQguy

 

[Midnight Circus]

Nigga Please

NO U

 

[Budweiserbob!]

I take the pecimistic view when going through these theories and automatically think "why care? We won't be around to see it!" XD

But I concur this is a very interesting question. 😛

 

[Headsnap]

NO U

u first

 

[cletus-factor]

I'll have another go at this. I forgot to mention a few other details. Before the universe ends, our solar system will (unless we discover some way to keep the sun in check) end in 4-5 billion years. The universe could be infinite as I said earlier or it could end tomorrow, but by all means it's looking like it might show us what is going to happen in trillions or even quadrillions of years.

As for the theories which started this thread:
Philosophically and with an amateur interest physics and astronomy I would examine each idea.

- The Big Freeze/ Heat Death theory - which means that everything either goes to absolute zero or continues to heat up until matter no longer exists in the state that we know it, but have we established an upper limit on heat AND have we shown that other types of particles could not exist at a higher temperature than say at the heart of the sun?

- The Big Rip - Sounds bogus. Sounds like the theory of what happens when we die. I believe (opinion) that time and the other dimensions, height, width, length and the others known as Calabi-Yau spaces are all part of the universe and so to have the universe with just time is not to have the universe but something that is not named or simply time.

- The Big Crunch - which to me sounds a lot like my infinite universe theory. One would think that if the universe crunched back up that perhaps it would re-explode and start all over again, a sort of Hindu Reincarnation idea.

- The Multiverse theory - which is very much along the lines of Erich Von Daniken's (sp) idea for Chariots of the Gods, in which he postulates that God didn't create man, but rather intelligent aliens. This argument has the same problem of God having created man in that if something created something else then what created the creator? So the universe is a conglomerate of smaller universes, but this is not "The Universe" then by definition but again something else which has no name or simply multiverse.

- The False Vacuum - again infinite universe just changing itself to something new.
- And finally the Multiple Level theory, again infinite universe theory just by a different mechanism.

 

[Headsnap]

all time is lie. time cube is truth. universe dont end, time cube make finite to infinity. TIME CUBE IS TRUTH

 

[DarthJarJar]

Simply Put, we are going to die.

 

[taxwaxus]

I’ll invoke the second law here. If you hold to the big bang theory then the universe is expanding from a center. The center would be dense in hydrogen and helium resulting in a butt-load of stars clustered in a relatively small area. Then the stars explode. The once densly packed center expands and thins out. After many repeated cycles the center is gone, and you’re left with a dissipated ring of hydrogen and helium pockets, which can either nucleate to form stars or not. My point is that it becomes less and less probable for stars to form as the ring expands. When the last star is dead and the ring is so large that it is statistically impossible for stars to form from the sparse amount of H and He available…that’s the end. Don’t blame me-entropy did it.

 

[whade]

Excuse me for being anal, but these are not theories, these are hypothesises.