Physicists predicted the death of the universe due to the "Great Compression"

A recent study suggests that the universe may not be expanding indefinitely. New data on dark energy may refute the theory put forward by astronomer Alexander Friedman in 1922. According to the latest data, the universe may end in a "Big Squeeze." This was reported on October 1 by Popular Science magazine.

Modern physics claims that the universe began its existence about 13.8 billion years ago after the Big Bang. However, data on the ultimate fate of the universe remains ambiguous. For decades, scientists believed that the universe would expand indefinitely, but in recent years, some experts have proposed other theories, such as a "long freeze" or even a "Big Gap."

Cornell University physicists, led by Henry Tighe, believe otherwise. In a recent paper, they presented new data on dark energy obtained from several observatories, which are included in the model of the Universe with a cosmological constant.

This constant was first described by Albert Einstein in 1917 and was used to compensate for gravitational attraction in a static universe. Although the cosmological constant was rejected after the confirmation of the expansion of the universe by Edward Hubble in 1929, scientists later returned to it with different values depending on the theory.

"The new data seems to indicate that the cosmological constant is negative and that the universe will end in a Major Contraction," Tai noted.

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The information came from two major reports published earlier this year— the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. These projects were organized to find out whether 68% of the total mass and energy in the universe, called dark matter, is a purely cosmological constant. Instead of confirming this hypothesis, it turned out that other forces were at work.

Although these "forces" remain a mystery, Tai's team experimented with introducing a hypothetical particle with an extremely low mass into cosmic equations. Initially, it behaved like a cosmological constant in the early epochs of the universe, but later it began to act differently. This led to a change in the constant to a negative one.

"People used to say that if the cosmological constant is negative, then the universe will collapse sooner or later. This is not new. However, here the model shows when and how the universe collapses," the physicist added.

The article emphasizes that if the hypothesis is confirmed, the universe will reach its maximum in 11 billion years. It is expected that after physics and the negative cosmological constant will determine whether the process of compression to a single point will begin. In 33 billion years, the universe will have to shrink to nothing. This may also be another compelling hypothesis, but at the moment it is based on the latest available data on some of the most intriguing components of the cosmos.

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Earlier, on September 29, BBC Science Focus magazine reported on the assumption of scientists, which implies the emergence of the Universe from a black hole, and not as a result of the Big Bang. According to Professor Henire Gastagnaga from the University of Portsmouth, the Big Bang was a "Big Bounce" when matter falling into a black hole contracted, bounced off and expanded, creating the universe.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.