The End of our Universe

How will the universe end? We don't know for sure, but there are three leading likely theories. Let's imagine a rubber band for this episode. assume that when you stretch the rubber band, that is the expanding force of the universe, and its original shape is due to gravity.

The Big Freeze is when expansion continues and wins over gravity. There is more and more space, the rubber band keeps on stretching and stretching but it doesn't snap. The distance between two points keeps on increasing and everything is isolated and cold, the big freeze, the slow poison.

The Big Rip is when the rubber band snaps. Dark Energy accelerates the expansion, even more, galaxies get ripper apart, solar systems get ripped apart, even the atoms are ripped apart into their subunits. Too much space for too little stuff, just lonely particles flying around.

The Big Crunch happens when the expansion of the universe stops. There is no more increasing space, everything comes closer and closer and eventually crashes onto each other. The rubber band is folded in on itself, the space inside it is removed and it is smashed down to one tiny point, which might lead to another big bang. This is called the Big Bounce, and who knows how many bounces our universe has had yet.

The most likely as per current data is the big freeze, but my personal favourite, which absolutely no one asked, is the big crunch and bounce theory.