In a new study, physicists have predicted that the Universe could end in a dramatic reversal known as the "Big Crunch." According to researchers Hoang Nhan Luu (Donostia International Physics Centre, Spain), Yu-Cheng Qiu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China), and Henry Tye (Cornell University, US), recent findings suggest that dark energy, the mysterious force driving the expansion of the Universe, may be changing over time.
If these findings are accurate, the Universe will stop expanding in about 11 billion years. After that, it will begin to contract, eventually collapsing under its own gravity. The study estimates the total lifespan of the Universe to be around 33.3 billion years. Since the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, that leaves less than 20 billion years remaining before this predicted cosmic collapse.
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Henry Tye, the Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, reached this conclusion after adding new data to a model involving the "cosmological constant" - a factor introduced more than a century ago by Albert Einstein and used by cosmologists in recent years to predict the future of our universe.
"For the last 20 years, people have believed that the cosmological constant is positive, and the universe will expand forever," Tye said. "The new data seem to indicate that the cosmological constant is negative, and that the universe will end in a big crunch."
Tye is the corresponding author of "The Lifespan of our Universe," published September 18 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
The universe is 13.8 billion years old and expanding. According to current models, Tye wrote, its two simplest fates are either: It will continue its present expansion forever, if the cosmological constant is positive; or, if the cosmological constant is negative, it will reach a maximum size, then contract, eventually collapsing to zero. The latter is the conclusion Tye reached with his recent calculation.
"This big crunch defines the end of the universe," Tye wrote. He determined from the model that the big crunch will happen about 20 billion years from now.
This theory offers a new perspective on the ultimate fate of the cosmos, challenging the long-held belief that the Universe will expand forever.
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