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Concept
Big Crunch
Summary
The Big Crunch is a hypothetical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach zero, an event potentially followed by a reformation of the universe starting with another Big Bang. The vast majority of evidence indicates that this hypothesis is not correct. Instead, astronomical observations show that the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than being slowed by gravity, suggesting that the universe is far more likely to end in heat death.However, there are new theories that suggest that a "Big Crunch-style" event could happen by the way of a Dark energy fluctuation, however this is still being debated amongst scientists.
The theory dates back to 1922, with Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann creating a set of equations showing that the end of the universe depends on its density. It could either expand or contract rather than stay stable. With enough matter, gravity could stop the universe's expansion and eventually reverse it. This reversal would result in the universe collapsing on itself, not too dissimilar to a black hole.
The outcome of the universe can be seen by seeing which force will beat out the other; one is the explosive force from the Big Bang, and the other is gravity. If gravity overcomes the force of the Big Bang, then the Big Crunch will start, reversing the Big Bang. However if this doesn't happen, heat death is the most likely scenario. While astronomers know that the universe is expanding, there is no consensus or data on how large the force of expansion actually is.
The ending of the Big Crunch would get filled with radiation from stars and high-energy particles; when this is condensed and blueshifted to higher energy, it would be intense enough to ignite the surface of stars before they collide. In the final moments, the universe would be one large fireball with a temperature of infinity, and at the absolute end, neither time, nor space would remain.
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