NASA Experts Warn of Universe Approaching Stagnation and Potential ‘Death’

A recent study suggests that our universe may be reaching a deadlock and slowly contracting towards a “death.”

Recently, three American scientists have built a model of dark energy – a hypothetical form of energy believed to be the cause of the universe’s expansion. The results obtained indicate that the universe appears to be approaching a phase of “decay.”

Specifically, after nearly 13.8 billion years of continuous expansion following the Big Bang, the universe may be reaching a deadlock and contracting soon. According to the model, dark energy is not an immutable force but can decay over time.

After billions of years of acceleration, dark energy seems to be showing signs of weakening. According to predictions, the universe’s expansion acceleration will rapidly come to an end within the next 65 million years.

This timeframe is unimaginable for humans but merely a blink of an eye for the universe. Our universe will maintain its size for another 100 years.

However, after that, it will enter an era of contraction and gradually approach a “death” or possibly an undefined non-time regeneration.

Paul Steinhardt, Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University (New Jersey, USA) and co-author, stated that there are two scenarios for the “death” of the universe.

First, the universe may contract, collapsing back into its original form before the Big Bang, becoming a silent “fossil.” Second, another Big Bang may occur, creating a new universe from the remnants.

Previous studies have also mentioned this second scenario. Scientists even suggest that the current universe in which Earth exists is not the first and only universe. It is highly possible that we are also a regenerated world from some ancient “remnants.”

The origin and evolution of the universe have long been topics of interest for astronomers. They observe through increasingly powerful telescopes, enabling them to see deeper into the universe.

In recent years, scientists have believed that the universe was formed after an event called the Big Bang. According to this theory, the universe in the past was extremely small, hot, and densely packed with matter.

Approximately 13.8 billion years ago, an explosion occurred, giving rise to space, energy, and matter to create the universe as it is today. Immediately after the explosion, the fundamental particles of the universe were formed, including neutrons, protons, electrons, photons, etc. As the universe cooled down, neutrons decayed into electrons or protons or combined with protons to form deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen).

The cooling universe led to more combinations: electrons merging with nuclei formed neutral atoms, and photons created the cosmic microwave background radiation. In summary, the most basic elements of the universe were formed just minutes after the Big Bang.

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