5 Ways the Universe Could End

The universe is a cold, unforgiving bitch…I mean lovely place to live (shut up! The universe is listening!). Anyways, the beauty of this place we call home is that there are so many fantastic ways in which it could utterly end itself and everything in it (sorry, that includes us). Even though most of these ideas propose endings that would happen well after our deaths, it's still fun to think about, so let's take a look at some scientific hypotheses for how the universe could end.

5. Heat Death (A.K.A. Big Freeze) 

See that picture? Yeah, well, that's our future…at least it is if the Heat Death is in our ultimate fate. This one also happens to be the most likely based on our current understanding of the universe and how stuff works. 

If you've taken grade 11 chemistry, you may have heard of something called Absolute Zero. When things get heated, atoms jiggle more. When you cool things down, atoms jiggle less. Basically though, how hot something is is really just a measure of its "jiggly-ness" (which would explain the jiggle I feel in my belly every time I walk…but I digress). But what happens when you start to really cool things down? Well, there is a theoretical temperature called Absolute Zero (0 Kelvin) where motion of atoms is supposed to completely stop. 

So what does this have to do with the universe? Well, there's a law that says heat (a form of energy) moves from hot to cold - but over a long period of time, it fills up space evenly (i.e. the heat gets evenly distributed - try to starting a fire in your room - you'll notice that as all of your belongings burn to a crisp, the entire room will slowly get filled with heat). Anyways, stars give out heat and eventually they will run out of fuel to keep going. All of the stars in the universe will eventually run out of fuel and their heat will spread throughout the cosmos …the things is though that the cosmos is REALLY big…like, we're talking about almost infinitely big and expanding constantly (but it's still not technically infinite - I know, infinity's a bit of a bitch, isn't she?).

So, over time, all heat will be distributed amongst an infinite universe and, as a result, the overall temperature in the universe will approach absolute zero…basically, nothing will ever happen ever again because there won't be any free energy flowing anywhere (the universe reaches what is called "maximum entropy" - by definition, absolutely nothing can happen at this point). Oh yeah, the universe will also slowly grow darker and more still…scary, eh? 

When Will It Happen? Starts are supposed to keep running for another 10^12 to 10^14 years (up to 100 trillion years)…so, some time after that. 

Badass-ery Rating: 8.5/10 - C'mon, a dead universe? Imagine that! That's a pretty poetic way to go out! It would happen very slowly though, so that kind of sucks. 

4. Big Rip

No, this one does not refer to that time you ripped your pants in 3rd grade (let's put those dark days behind us). This one is due to a simple fact that was discovered by Hubble a while back: the universe is expanding and the acceleration of the expansion is increasing. Gravity is an attractive force that keeps galaxies together, but on a large scale, there seems to be a mysterious unknown force called Dark Energy that is driving galaxies apart. 

But who cares? Well, for now, Dark Energy only acts on large scales (i.e. between galaxies), but under some theoretical circumstances, this dark energy could eventually start acting on a small scale (i.e. you, me and swiss cheese), eventually ripping you apart atom by atom. It would tear everything down into its most fundamental level until the entire universe was just an empty, atomic soup, and perhaps (this sounds nuts) ripping apart space and time itself as the expansion rate approaches infinity. Fuck - that sounds painful! 

Here's a diagram laying out how everything would shake down: 

When Will It Happen? Enough time for you to go take a shit. Don't worry. 

Badass-ery Rating: 9/10 - This one's pretty good - being ripped apart by an invisible force? That sounds like Hollywood Sci-Fi magic right there! 

3. Big Crunch 

 Yummmm…I mean, holy shit! The Big Crunch!

So we have this thing called gravity, right? It's supposed to attract things towards other things, so the question then becomes, shouldn't all galaxies just slowly be moved towards each other? Clearly this isn't happening because the universe is actually expanding and at an ever-increasing rate. The force that's driving shit apart is called Dark Energy (awesome name for a Metal Band, eh?). Basically, right now, it's a fight between Dark Energy and Gravity to see who will win the heart of the universe (place your best right now!).

The BIg Crunch is what might theoretically happen if Gravity ends up winning. Basically, the idea is that sometime in the very distant future, the expansion rate of the universe will slow down, eventually stop, and then freaking reverse! That means that gravity will slowly pull galaxies and stars closer together (slowly at first but freakishly fast after).

 The end result…is a bit tricky…the current idea is that, without anything to stop it, gravity would eventually pull everything into a singularity…eerily similar to the singularity in which the universe theoretically started. The cycle of life! If this is true, that means that this new singularity would eventually experience another Big Bang, resulting in a new universe and so one…an invite cycle of Big Bangs, Big Crunches (yummmm) and new universes!

Badass-ery Rating: 9.8/10 - Now this one's badass! A cosmic cycle of life - that'd be pretty neat.

2.  Black Holes Swallow EVERYTHING

Black holes are the assholes of the universe. They're like that kid at lunch who goes around taking a bite from everyone's sandwich…except while they're at it, a black hole would swallow you as well. 

Our current observations show us that massive black holes are at the centre of each major galaxy with things (like stars and planets and children) constantly falling into its event horizon (the point of no return). Whenever it swallows something, it gets bigger and can start swallowing more shit. When galaxies collide (and our Milky Way Galaxy is going to collide with Andromeda in the future), the black holes at their centre are supposed to merge to form…a fucking super black hole. And that black hole will start eating more shit (including your car keys…assholes). 

You see where this is going, right? Eventually, we may get to the point where pretty much everything worth getting excited over (stars, planets, quasars, Breaking Bad) will be inside of a super duper mega massive black hole (that's the scientific term for it). That doesn't sound fun. 

Badass-ery Rating: 7.5/10 - Intriguing, but it lacks a little bit of flare. Extra points for (maybe) letting me see the inside of a black hole though! 

1. Metastability (i.e. the thing that could kill everything RIGHT NOW) 

Okay, so far, all of these hypotheses involve deaths that will happen in billions and trillions of years. This one's different - it may never happen…or it may destroy everything in the next second. You better finish this article quick before it happens then! This, in my opinion, is the most interesting one. But it needs some explanation though, so hang in there. 

We're going to need an analogy. Imagine you're cupping a marble in your hand so that it doesn't fall out and you're holding it out in front of you. At this point, the marble is NOT in its lowest "energy state". It has what we call "potential energy" since you've given it height and, if you let it go, it will convert that energy into kinetic energy by falling to the earth. 

Anyways, the key thing here is that the marble "wants" to be in its lowest energy state. That's one of the reasons why it falls back down as soon you let go. It's a fundamental property of matter and is seen in atoms and even electrons: it's why electrons are always in their lowest energy orbitals (i.e. there are never any empty shells in the middle of nowhere - electrons always fill the shells closest to the nucleus). So, this is true of all matter, that's been established….can it be true of the universe though?!

IF the universe is NOT in its lowest energy state, then…that's kind of bad (it means the universe would be in a fundamentally unstable state). It would move into its lowers state of energy through a process called tunnelling (be careful clicking that link though - tunnelling is pretty fucked up). 

Basically, the marble in your hypothetical hand would be considered stable….but due to tunnelling, there's actually a tiny chance that it could hop out of your hand and fall to the floor to its preferred state. It's the same deal with the universe. It may appear stable, held up in some hand, but one day, it might snap and change. 

The real point here though is that, we don't know what would happen if the universe would change "energy states". There is no reason to believe that the laws of nature would be the same and it has been well established that if even one physical constant was off by a decimal point, life, and the universe we know and love, would cease to exist. 

Indeed, a universe that fell into a lower energy state may be so messed up compared to this one, that our notions of space and time may not even make sense there. Time may only be a property of this specific universe! Da fuck?! If this happened, everything would cease - even time itself. You wouldn't have even died - it'll almost be as if you never existed…damn universe, you scary!

Badass-ery Rating: 11/10 - This one gets all of the asses in the world. Just take all of them. Anything that can destroy everything in an instant deserves our asses.