Three destinies of the Universe

Three destinies of the Universe

www.usatoday.com

University of Chicago cosmologist Michael Turner calls the acceleration "the most profound mystery in all of science." It was Turner who coined the term "dark energy" for the unknown substance that provides this cosmic push. Studies have shown that it comprises 74% of all the mass and energy of the universe.

Scientists say that if they can understand dark energy, they may learn the fate of the universe — whether it will keep on expanding, tear itself apart or implode cataclysmically

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
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It would seem that those pesky Physicists have a new challenge for the next, oh lets say, 30 Billion years. While Dark Energy has been in the forefront of cosmology for at least a decade, scientists are no closer to understanding the nature of the stuff but they are sporting a few scientific "guesses"
As the article suggests there are 3 destinies for the probable universe based on the latest research:
1. An accelerated expansion of everything in the universe until basically everything is so far away from everything else it appears empty.
2. That strengthening dark energy will literally cause a "rip" in the universe destroying everything at an atomic level.
3. That dark energy will fade and the universe will implode
(much like our present political system)

It seems to me that, to coin a phrase, "The Universe is big! Really,really big." Our infantile perceptions may be just the rantings of a immature mindset but the obvious "Omega" scenarios just can't keep from popping up, even in the most fantastic minds our race can produce.

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Let's not forget that Dark Energy is only a theory! A theory means that it has yet to be proven and it is entirely possible that Dark Energy doesn't exist at all.

There are other theories some that don't need Dark Matter to explain the universe, some of these even result in a universe that will neither empty, rip, crunch or explode!

But I like the article nonetheless.

Not a big expert on the subject but I read elsewhere, that three scenarios that could happen to our universe were:

1. Keep expanding at the rate that its doing right now forever.

2. Someway somehow some kind of gravity force may make the universe to contract and then we are toast.

3. The universe just stop halts, no more expansion, and no contraction.

If I find the article, I will put it here.