The History and Future of the Universe

Big Bang Big Freeze Big Crunch Universe Image

The name “Universe” comes from old French and Latin roots and is translated as “all revolving as one” an appropriate name for what is, essential, everything. The size of the universe is staggering and nearly incompressible, yet we struggle to comprehend not only the scope but the origins and eventual demise of the universe. Thanks to the work of many, many brilliant minds, we have modelled, with what we imagine to be some degree of accuracy, the history and future of the universes.

The Universe

First, what exactly is the universe? It might be better to say “the observable universe” as we can only measure that which we can observe, either directly or (as in most cases when dealing with such enormous distances) indirectly. The term “universe” reverse to all matter and energy that is, and the time/space that it occupies and acts in. Scientists have begun to lay out their model for the evolution of the universes relatively recently, in a large part thanks to Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who is responsible for “Hubble’s Law”.

Hubble observed that the red shift (the shift of light to the red end of the spectrum) of a galaxy was proportional to its distance—this in turn lead to the discovery that galaxies were, in fact, moving. From here scientists were able to figure out where they were moving from, and extrapolate a theoretical centre of the universe. Based on further discovery that galaxies were not only moving but accelerating, a theoretical age was determined as well.

The Big Bang

Commonly accepted as the pre-eminent theory of the beginning of the universe, the “Big Bang” refers to the point at which all that existed changed from a state of being that was a singularly dense point to exploding outward, forming the universe. The early stages of the universe were filled with matter colliding and creating energy, and accretion (a sort of sticky- collision) creating stars and planets.

A Young Universe

Based on current studies—which in turn are based on a number of assumptions which could be proven false at some future point—the universe is about 13.7 billion years old (give or take 200 million years.) As our sun is thought to be about 4.5 billion years old, that would make our solar system fairy young as well. What about the universe’s life expectancy? As of yet, there is no prevailing, widely accepted answer.

The Various Fates of the Universe

There are many, many theories about what the eventual fate of the Universe will be. Many of them deal with a return to a starting point, a universe that slows its expansion and then slowly collapses in on itself, as a ball that bounces high eventually stops and returns to earth. In these theories, often under such titles as the “Big Crunch”, the Big Bang is simply a reaction to the end of a prior universe, following a grand, cosmic “circle of life.” In other theories, such as the “Big Freeze”, follow a model where continued expansion results in a sort of evening-out of everything. Things become so distant and evenly spaced that stars stop providing life giving heat and, as they one-by-one run out of hydrogen fuel, burn out, and everything freezes over.

Final Thoughts

Current observations of the rate of acceleration and expansion have turned many away from a “collapsing universe” theory, and many theories are quite open ended as to the eventual fate of the universe.