Photo: Deutsche Welle/NASA, ESA, AND A. SCHALLER (FOR STSCL) / copyright
A group of scientists has determined that the universe, which has 13,800 millions of years in a constant expansion, it could stop doing it soon and finish with space-time, according to the study published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Until now, it is not entirely clear what accelerates the expansion of the universe . However, the researchers believe that a mysterious force called dark energy is behind this phenomenon.
In their models, the scientists posit that the force of this dark energy would be weakening, which would imply a deceleration of the universe that would lead it to contract, thus causing the death or rebirth of space-time.
Your contraction could start “very soon”
According to the authors of the study, the universe would rapidly begin to shrink within the next 65 million years, to do it completely within 100 million years.
Paul Steinhardt, director of the Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University and co-author of the research, explained that these events could begin to occur “extraordinarily fast”.
“If we go back 65 Millions of years ago, we will see the Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. On a cosmic scale, 60 millions of years is an extraordinarily short period,” Steinhardt told Live Science. .
What role does dark energy play?
During recent years, scientists have tried to explain the existence of the mysterious dark energy, an invisible force that would constitute a 70% of the mass-energy of the universe and that seems to act against gravity, moving the most massive objects in the universe away instead of bringing them closer.
In this new research, the authors propose that this energy weakens over time: “Its strength can weaken. And if you do it in a certain way, then eventually the antigravity property of dark energy wears off and it turns back into something more like ordinary matter,” University of British Columbia professor of physics and astronomy Gary told Live Science. Hinshaw, who was not involved in the study.
What will happen after the 80 million years?
According to the researchers’ theory, once 100 millions of years have passed and the universe has completely stopped expanding, it should start to contract slowly.
In this way, two possible endings arise: either the universe collapses and ends the current space-time after almost 13, millions of years of expansion, or the universe contracts so much that it returns to its original state, d causing a new Big Bang, giving way to a new universe.
Edited by José Ignacio Urrejola