The Universe's Expansion Could Be Coming to an End

Not only is the universe expanding, but it is doing so with acceleration, as proved by Hubble's cosmological law. The law has led most scientists to assume that the universe's expansion will continue for a very long time, if not forever.

However, three Princeton physicists challenged this view. They presented a model of the universe in which the expansion of space is almost at an end. Scientists argue that the universe will begin to shrink, and this may happen surprisingly soon.

According to cosmologists, "soon" is within 100 million years. This means that humankind is on the verge of the beginning of the era of the Big Crunch. Physicists published their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To confirm their hypothesis, the authors use three models of the nature of dark energy. The first assumes that the universe will continue to expand faster and faster, while the second model assumes a slowing of expansion in the very distant future. However, the article proposes to consider a third model, in which dark energy is a kind of quintessence, and the rate of acceleration is already beginning to slow down little by little.