Scientists at Cornell University are challenging long-held theories about the universe’s ultimate fate. For decades, the prevailing view was a universe expanding forever into a cold, empty expanse. However, a new analysis led by physicist S.-H. Henry Tye suggests a far more dramatic conclusion: a complete collapse. The universe may not be slowly freezing but is instead hurtling towards a violent end.
This provocative research proposes that cosmic expansion will reverse in approximately 10 billion years, culminating in a ‘Big Crunch’ event around 20 billion years from now. In this scenario, all galaxies, planets, and even time itself would be compressed into an incredibly dense singularity. This dramatic shift in cosmic destiny is driven by a re-evaluation of dark energy.
The prevailing assumption has been that dark energy, the force driving cosmic expansion, is constant and positive. However, new data from large-scale astronomical surveys like the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) are casting doubt on this. The observations suggest that the cosmological constant, a key parameter in cosmic models, might actually be negative. This could mean dark energy is not pushing the universe apart but will eventually pull it back together, allowing gravity to reclaim dominance.
The model incorporating this possibility involves theoretical ultralight axions, particles that could make up both dark matter and dark energy. According to this framework, as axions evolve over cosmic time, they could alter the nature of dark energy, transforming it from an expansive force to a contractive one. This evolution would lead to the halting of expansion in about 10 billion years, followed by an accelerating contraction over the next 9 billion years, and finally, the Big Crunch in roughly 20 billion years.
While still theoretical, this model is gaining traction due to its compelling fit with the latest observational data from DES and DESI. Although axions have not been directly detected and dark energy remains a profound mystery, the mathematical alignment with real-world observations provides significant support. Future missions, including NASA’s SPHEREx, ESA’s Euclid, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, are poised to gather more precise data that could either confirm this collapse scenario or necessitate a complete revision of our understanding of the universe’s structure and destiny. The possibility that ‘everything will disappear’ is now being discussed with empirical data, placing the universe’s end on a calculable timeline.
