Discussions about the potential end of the world frequently capture public attention, with numerous experts sharing their insights on the topic.
However, the reality is that pinpointing the exact moment when humanity may face its demise remains uncertain. Scientists, nevertheless, are making educated guesses.
If there’s any group worth considering, it would likely be these scientists.
The concept known as the ‘Big Crunch’ theory has scientists exploring the idea of the universe eventually collapsing back into itself, an event described as ‘cosmic hell’.
Researchers from Cornell University have conducted a study to determine when this ‘Big Crunch’ might commence.
It has been identified by experts that the universe’s current expansion is driven by a force termed Dark Energy, a force that they believe is diminishing.
Dr. Ethan Yu–Cheng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University explained to the Mail Online: “It is just like throwing a basketball vertically upwards in daily life. The negative cosmological constant acts like the Earth’s gravity, which pulls the basketball downward.”
“The basketball will de–accelerate until reaching the maximum height and start to fall.”
According to the study’s cosmologists, this apocalyptic event is predicted to occur in at least 19.5 billion years. Henry Tye informed the New York Post that the ‘Big Crunch’ would start in 11 billion years and take an additional 8.5 billion years to complete.
Researcher Dr. Hoang Nhan Luu added to Mail Online: “Intelligent civilizations at the scales of solar systems or even galactic scales would not notice any obvious phenomenon because these changes happen at much larger cosmological scales.”
Given the timeline, could humanity survive such an event?
With the time available for preparation, survival might be feasible.
Tye stated, “To survive, human beings have to move to the edge of our solar system or beyond. We have a few billion years’ time to prepare for that trip.”
Nevertheless, Luu provided a cautionary note to the Mail Online: “Intelligent civilisations at the scales of solar systems or even galactic scales would not notice any obvious phenomenon because these changes happen at much larger cosmological scales.”
“Civilisations like us typically exist on time scales of hundreds to thousands of years while the changes happen on billion–year time scales, so we wouldn’t notice any obvious day–to–day phenomenon until the very last moment.”