The future of the Universe? Will it die?

Question

I have a question about the future of the Universe. Will the Universe actually come to an end one day and die out like the stars? Or, will the Universe go on forever?
Please give some theories on this subject. A good answer will be rewarded ;) Thank you.

Answer 1

The "death" of the Universe is dependent upon a quantity known as the Hubble Constant. The Hubble Constant has to do with how fast the Universe is expanding.

The Universe is still expanding from the energy released during the Big Bang. The gravity of all the mass in the Universe counteracts that expansion, but how much? There are three possible general answers, that the Universe is closed, open, or flat, depending on the value of the Hubble Constant.

If the Universe is closed, there is enough matter to eventually stop the expansion and begin to draw matter back into the center. This will take billions of years, even longer than the it took to expand, because there was a period of rapid inflation near the very beginning. But eventually, some many many billions of years from now, all matter will collapse into a singularity, much like the one from which the Universe was born.

If the Universe is flat or an open, it will expand forever. If open, it will gather speed, expanding faster and faster. Eventually, other galaxies will be so far away from us that we will not be able to see their light. Our galaxy will drift on alone. One by one the stars in it will die, going supernova or burning out into a brown dwarf. Little by little the sky will go dark.

If the Universe is flat, the rate of expansion will eventually slow down and stop, with the gravity from the mass in it perfectly balancing out the expansion. If the Universe is still relatively compact, so that individual galaxies will still attract and collide with each other, it will be possible for new stars to form. It all depends on how far away from each other the galaxies are when the Universe finally stops.

I would like the Universe to be either closed or flat with a small enough diameter that whomever lives in it will always see stars at night. The idea of the Universe slowly going dark, star by star, and whatever creatures live there watching those lights winking out one by one would be a million, billion times worse than watching a species go extinct or a glacier recede. It is the end of all hope.

Currently it looks like the Universe is flat, but expansion is increasing, darn it.

Answer 2

There are actually theories that the universe has been expanding and collapsing on itself for all time. We know the universe we live in is expanding and had a beginning (you can look up background radiation and other fun stuff for info on evidence of the big bang and the expanding universe). Folks who shudder at the thought of a First Cause (i.e. God) which is necessary for the beginning of the universe and time, have proposed the collapsing universe as a means to circumvent anything remotely spiritual. If this theory is correct then this universe will come to an end, but since this sort of thing isn't particularly measurable, there's no real predictions of when the collapse and re-bigbang will take place.

For now, we know the universe is expanding. Think of it as the outside of a balloon with polka dots on it. As you pump air into the balloon the dots get further and further away from each other. This is actually happening in our universe. The galaxies are constantly moving away from each other in all directions.

Answer 3

The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of the universe is always increasing. What this means is that, given enough time, all matter and energy in the universe will be converted to scattered, low-energy radiation. If this sounds like the death of the universe to you, so be it. It certainly sounds like that to me.
For a very well-written exploration into the hypothetical fate of the universe, read The Five Ages of the Universe, by Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin. I'll provide a very brief summary here.
There are five distinct ages of the universe: primordial, stelliferous, degenerate, black hole, and dark. Each one lasts longer and is quieter than the one before. Currently we are in the stelliferous era, so named because of the abundance of stars. Eventually all stars will die, usually in the form of a white dwarf. White dwarves do not sustain nuclear fusion; they are simply hot, and will eventually radiate their energy away and become dark. At this point we are in the degenerate era. This "degenerate matter," including not only white dwarfs but brown dwarfs, neutron stars, dark matter, and pretty much anything else that doesn't sustain fusion, will eventually disappear due to proton decay. Thus begins the black hole era.
Black holes, of course, possessing no protons, are immune to proton decay. They survive the degenerate era due to their sheer mass and associated inescapable gravity. But not ever black holes last forever. Once they run out of matter to gobble up, they will eventually evaporate into Hawking radiation.
This leaves nothing. No stars, no black holes, nothing. The universe ends up as a dark, empty expanse of void.
Isn't that pleasant to think about?

Answer 4

Definitely one day it will die, in the form as we know or believe to know it.
It is just about the death... it sounds like an end, with nothing after that. The power that moves the whole universe is energy, and even from the scientific point, energy never "dies" it transforms itself into another form. It's a never ending story... so, when one Universe is gone, another will be born.

Answer 5

Some people believe the universe will go on forever, but all matter will be used up, and the universe will be cold and dark, filled with iron and black holes. No heat, no energy, no light.

Some people believe the universe will eventually stop expanding and begin contracting. This universe will contract back to the point of the big bang, but it's possible it will re-bang.

Answer 6

Many scientist believe the Universe is still expanding, or moving outward. Many of those scientist also believe that eventually it could stop and begin a slow retreat. In that case, I guess it would die and gobble everything up in the process. Probably by massive black hole. There are also those who think it will just continue expanding and never stop. And those who think it might eventually stop and stay in place. Who know? It is one of those questions you can ask God becuase we'll never actually witness the end of the Universe.

Answer 7

There are theories that it will go on forever, there are theories that it will expand until a certain point and then retract like a rubber band and start over again like a yo-yo. I think the last theory has been proven wrong at this point. It is expanding and I don't think that it will ever stop. I think that certain parts will be diffrerent but the energy will never be non-exsistent.

Answer 8

It will eventually die. For the universe to continue like this it needs fuel. Sun will die in 5 billion years at which it will ren out of fuel to burn. Similarly all the stars will burn out oneday. Some will born and die. Eventually all fuel will be exausted. That is the death of the universe.

Answer 9

Some people are of the opinion that the universe is expanding and eventually will reach a point where it will collapse back in on itself and then start over...

Imagine it like this... you have a bungee cord of rope attached between two people. They both start running in opposite directions (the expanding universe) eventually they'll reach a point where neither can go any farther and the elastic will snap them back together where they started.

Answer 10

Well... suns eventually run out of the gasses and die out by slow expanding death (leading into a nebula), quick exploding death (supernovas), or by shrinking into itself and becoming either a neutron star or a black hole.

I believe the universe itself will also go through a similar dramatic change, becoming something else entirely... into what I'm not sure, but I really don't think it'll simply "pop" out of existence.