The Big Rip

So here’s the gist of it.  For a really long time, astronomers have believed that the universe is expanding as a result of the Big Bang, with the attendant belief that it is slowing down as it grows.  Coz, y’know… that’s how it should be, right?  In 1998, a super nova research team discovered the universe is in fact accelerating.

Scientists blame Dark Energy, a “mysterious” force with the feature of repulsive gravity.  It’s the closest thing we’ll get to anti-gravity, only it isn’t.  And there’s a lot of it.  One thing scientists seem to know for sure about it is that it appears to have a constant density throughout the universe over time.  Meaning, with the universe expanding, the amount of dark energy somehow increases to keep up with it.  Like the bones in our bodies, as it were.

The simple explanation for that is that dark energy is somehow a fixed feature of space-time itself, so it expands as the universe expands.   It’s just there because it has to be.

Now, given that Dark Energy is theorized to be the constant repulsive force behind the constant expanding universe, if the density of dark energy decreased over time, that would slow down the rate of universal expansion.  That would potentially lead to the Big Crunch, in which all observable matter collapses into a single point of energy.

But what if the density of dark energy increased?  First of all, remember that the observable universe is just whatever has had enough time for its light to reach Earth, so the expansion of the universe means that some sectors of it have moved forever beyond our ability to see it.  Now imagine everything is pulled so far apart by the cosmic expansion that each individual piece of observable universe is no larger than a galaxy, or the solar system.  Expand that even more, and eventually the observable universe will be little more than a planet.  Your city.

The room you’re in.

Individual.  Atoms.

This is an alternate theory to the end of all things is known as the Big Rip, postulating that all structures in the universe down to the subatomic get torn apart.  Something to think about.

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