Scientists Predict When The Universe Will Die In A Massive ‘Big Crunch’ Event

A newly published study has delivered some pretty intense news — scientists believe they’ve figured out when the universe might come to an end, giving it a specific 'death date'.

But before we all panic and start clearing out supermarket shelves or building underground bunkers, it’s worth mentioning that this predicted doomsday is way, way off in the future.

And when I say far off, I mean around 20 billion years from now. So, no immediate need to freak out.

Still, that doesn’t make the news any less mind-blowing. Until now, many believed the universe would just keep growing endlessly.

But this new research suggests it will eventually stop expanding and begin shrinking instead.

So, what does all that mean? Let’s break it down.

New study reveals the ‘death date’ of the universe

Physicists from Cornell University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other respected institutions teamed up for this study. They believe the universe will reach its peak size and then start shrinking — with this major turning point happening in about seven billion years.

According to their findings, after expanding for billions of years, the universe will shift gears and begin collapsing. It’s like all the effort it put into expanding will start to undo itself, pulling everything back in.

This massive reversal is predicted to occur when the universe is around 33.3 billion years old. Since our universe is currently 13.8 billion years old, we still have around 20 billion years left before things begin to take a dramatic turn.

The universe will apparently bow out in about 20 billion years time Getty Stock Image

What is the ‘Big Crunch’ and what will happen?

According to the researchers, the end of the universe might mirror how it all started in a pretty dramatic way.

They’ve nicknamed this hypothetical ending the 'Big Crunch' because it's essentially the opposite of the Big Bang that kicked everything off in the first place.

Imagine the universe expanding like a stretched rubber band. As the tension increases, there comes a point where the stretch gives way and it snaps back in on itself. That’s the idea behind this theory — only on a cosmic scale.

So, what does that mean exactly? Well, the universe will keep expanding for a while longer. But eventually, gravity and other forces will overpower that expansion and start to pull everything back together.

Researchers suggest that in around seven billion years, the universe will reach its largest possible size — roughly 69 percent bigger than it is today — before things start to collapse inward in what they call the 'Big Crunch'.

It's all to do with 'dark energy' - even though experts still have no idea what that is Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How did scientists determine the universe’s 'death date'?

Scientists have been able to estimate the universe’s ‘death date’ by carefully studying how something called dark energy behaves over time.

Dark energy is a term scientists use to describe the mysterious force that’s been making the universe expand faster and faster. But here’s the twist — no one really knows what it actually is.

NASA explains it this way: "Nine billion years after the universe began, its expansion started to speed up, driven by an unknown force that scientists have named dark energy. But what exactly is dark energy?"

"The short answer is: We don't know. But we do know that it exists, it's making the universe expand at an accelerating rate, and approximately 68.3 to 70% of the universe is dark energy."

Even though there’s still a lot we don’t understand about dark energy, researchers have been observing it closely to figure out whether it’s getting stronger, fading away, or staying the same over time.

For this new study, which led to predictions about the universe’s eventual collapse, scientists analyzed data from several large-scale astronomical surveys.

These surveys included the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. By diving deep into the data collected from these tools, scientists concluded that the universe will begin collapsing in about 33.3 billion years.