In a new study, physicists have proposed that the Universe could one day reverse its expansion and collapse in a dramatic event known as the “Big Crunch.”
Researchers Hoang Nhan Luu of the Donostia International Physics Centre in Spain, Yu-Cheng Qiu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and Henry Tye of Cornell University in the United States say recent findings suggest that dark energy—the mysterious force driving the Universe’s expansion—may be changing over time.
If their calculations are correct, the expansion of the Universe will stop in about 11 billion years, after which it will begin to contract and ultimately collapse under its own gravity. The study estimates the total lifespan of the Universe at around 33.3 billion years, meaning less than 20 billion years remain before this predicted cosmic collapse.
Professor Henry Tye, the Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell, reached this conclusion after updating a model involving Albert Einstein’s cosmological constant, a factor used to describe the Universe’s rate of expansion.
“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 paper titled “The Lifespan of Our Universe,” published on September 18 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
According to the study, if the cosmological constant is positive, the Universe will continue expanding indefinitely. However, if it is negative, expansion will reach a limit before reversing, leading to a collapse into zero size — a fate the researchers now predict.
“This big crunch defines the end of the universe,” Tye wrote, noting that it could occur roughly 20 billion years from now.
The findings challenge the long-held assumption that the Universe will expand forever, offering a new perspective on its ultimate destiny.
Source: Agency