Will the universe be destroyed eventually?
replied to: mmh1516
Replied to: Will the universe be destroyed eventually?
There is a very interesting and odd debate about the fate of the universe, especially lately.
Here is my theory, which is partially based on an oscillatory universe and the more recent explanations of dark energy and matter. An oscillatory universe is one that goes through an infinite sequence of big bangs and big crunches over octillions of years. Dark energy is a force that is oddly causing the entire universe to expand at an increasingly faster rate. Dark matter is a form of unusual and unknown matter thought to be ten times as dense as normal matter. All of these things seem to point towards an expanding universe that is only flying apart faster and faster as time goes on, much like a force (dark energy in this instance,) is pushing it along. This force is heretofore completely unknown in properties or even observed, thus the light for speculation is reading a resounding "Please, Come in!"
Since astronomers and physicists recently discovered that the universe is "flat," I am going to assume that it is much like a piece of paper that has no edges. This means the piece of paper must extend for infinity in all directions. Since, theoretically, infinity can't exactly exist when regarding physical matter, most of the universe is completely vacant. We do not know what the nature of the universe beyond the furthest known cosmic radiation or observed galaxy or quasar. I believe that if you were to somehow send a space ship at a speed much, much faster than the speed of light out incredibly far past the edges of the known universe, the people would observe a very odd and inexplicable phenomenon. They would return to the universe as they know it, eventually, but from the center. This is bizarre and hard to imagine, and it may not make any sense (assuming that the known laws of physics really discount such phenomena.)
Basically, what this thought implies, is that as the universe expands towards this unusual and impractical repetition "edge", after a potentially near infinite amount of time (and therefore beyond the speed of light, as dark energy suggests could be possible,) it would suddenly and unexpectedly be coalesced in the center once again, much like the big bang. This would mean an infinite density and an infinitely small point. It'd be like a black hole that has reached critical mass, and must explode. At this distance (effectively 0) the dark energy's accelerated expansion of the universe would be supremely affected by immense gravity, thus slowing the expansion back to a more familiar and sane rate of expansion that we observe today.
Oddly enough, another possible implication of this perhaps silly theory is that the status of the universe would be exactly reset, as the absolutely original contents of the big bang would be completely replaced by... itself. This could mean that the only possibility to exist in a completely closed environment (which the universe is,) would be the exact same thing that has happened as we've observed it thus far. Therefore, in octillions and octillions of years we'll be right back here, doing this all again, exactly how we're doing it now.
So no, the universe isn't necessarily destroyed.
That's just my theory. :)
replied to: megafixer
Replied to: There is a very interesting and odd debate about the fate...
It took me about ten minutes to read all that, but i see your point. But even though the universe never ends, I think we can still assume that it can be shrunk or expanded, as it is now. So, if, for example, we were traveling throughout space at an increasing speed, and one day, we passed through a time warp, and returned to a specific point in time, and the universe's size had been changed since, everything that had changed since, everything that had existed in the space that didn't exist then would have disappeared, and we would have to start over. And if some new life had formed during that time (which would be incredibly impossible, but not entirely), it would be, not extinct, because technically, it had never existed, but just a spirit, a phantom in space still waiting for its time to come. But if we'd been warped to the future, that would have turned out entirely differently. The universe, for all we knew, could have been changed so completely and drastically, that humans might have not been able to continuing their existence. So, we would have to wait for something else to pass through a time warp near our location to be warped back to a time when we still existed. Well, anything is possible. What do you think?