• Question: Do you think there will be an End of the Universe? If so, could you estimate when?

    Asked by nadiamiah to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by 10scoeddc2, 10samlarc4, 10jamswib4, 10marleoc1, 10alfmacr4, 10chlattc1, 10samheac1, rowellhayes, palmerdix, benchunwilf, sammy1, sophia2012, kylechicharitofoley, benyounglawler, courtneyh, deanio, megans, wesaal786.
    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      The short answer is that we don’t know! It’s possible that the expansion of the universe will slow down and then the universe will collapse back on itself and everything will be squashed down to a point. But we don’t know if this will happen, it’s also possible that the universe will keep on expanding forever.
      This is one of the questions we are trying to find out the answers to by studying the universe and how it is changing. We don’t know the answer now, but we can hope that we might do soon.

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      No one really knows. Like Clare said there are three main ideas, that it will collapse back down, reach a certain size and stop or will keep expanding forever. Current measurements point towards reaching a certain size and stopping, but it’s not very certain.

      The theories were all thrown off a bit a few decades ago when we discovered the rate the universe is expanding at is actually speeding up, not slowing down. We’re still puzzling that one out.

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