- LEARN MORE: A researcher claims the Big Bang theory is incorrect ... as they explain the true origin of the universe
The cosmos is not eternal. Indeed, researchers have discovered that its duration is almost half over already .
A group from the United States and China We have found out that our universe will arrive at its "end date" and cease expanding once it reaches this point. 33.3 billion years old .
Given that the universe is currently believed to be approximately 13.8 billion years old, there remains more than 19 billion years until all things come to an end as described by scientists as a "Big Crunch."
Although the universe has been spreading out since the beginning of the Big Bang, the huge explosion thought to be the beginning of all things , the Big Crunch would be the opposite – where all matter contracts back into one point of energy.
Scientists from Cornell University in New York and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have developed a novel cosmological model indicating that dark energy, which is thought to be responsible for the universe's growth, may decrease gradually and eventually be overcome by gravitational forces.
Researchers continue to seek evidence for the existence of dark energy, yet they think it functions as an outward force, opposing gravity’s tendency to bring all matter closer.
Should dark energy eventually disappear after 33.3 billion years, according to the latest research, gravitational forces exerted by every star, galaxy, and black hole could cause the universe to collapse upon itself.
This revised version of the cosmos offers a significantly reduced timeframe for human presence, whereas earlier theories proposed that development could continue indefinitely.
NASA's Chelsea Gohd stated in a statement What precisely is dark energy? In brief, the answer is: We remain uncertain. However, we have established that it does exist, it is causing the universe to expand at an increasing pace, and roughly between 68.3% and 70% of the cosmos consists of dark energy.
In the new study, scientists focused on the role of dark energy in this process, using a model called the axion Dark Energy (aDE) model to interpret recent data suggesting that dark energy behaves differently than previously thought.
Researchers once thought dark energy acted as a cosmic constant, representing a stable, eternal energy level responsible for the ongoing acceleration of the universe's growth.
This involves a new research conducted in 2020 in Astronomy & Astrophysics which indicated that the universe's dark energy features a positive cosmological constant, implying that its strength remains unchanged over time and continues to facilitate the expansion of the universe.
Nevertheless, the updated aDE model indicates that dark energy might possess a negative cosmological constant approximately equal to -1.61, implying that the universe could ultimately attain a peak size before collapsing into a Big Crunch.
"The significance of the universe's age lies at the core of cosmological studies. Following the development of the Big Bang Theory, scientists have come to understand that it has a definite beginning," the researchers stated on the preprint platform. Arxiv .
"By using the optimal parameter values from the model as a reference point, we determined the age of our universe to be 33 billion years," they mentioned in the research paper submitted to the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
Scientists examined new information gathered from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). These initiatives explored the rate of cosmic expansion by examining phenomena such as supernovae and the distribution pattern of galaxies.
The findings indicated that dark energy could be less constant than earlier research had suggested.
Researchers employed the aDE model, which incorporates a cosmological constant (a parameter influencing the expansion or contraction of the universe) along with an extremely light particle known as an axion.
After applying this model to the data, they calculated important parameters, such as the cosmological constant and the equation of state (which indicates how dark energy behaves).
They subsequently utilized these figures to forecast the universe's fate, determining when it could cease expanding and eventually contract.
In contrast to conventional models that considered dark energy as constant, this approach enables dark energy to decrease gradually as the axion field changes.
An axion field can be thought of as an imperceptible, ultra-lightweight energy wave that permeates all of the cosmos, similar to waves spreading across a lake but present in every part of space.
By making dark energy adaptable in this manner, it was found that this repelling force might have an optimal value that is negative, indicating it will diminish over time as the universe continues to expand from the Big Bang.
The future of the universe remains uncertain. Firstly, researchers have yet to fully understand what dark energy truly entails.
The NASA organization has proposed four hypotheses regarding this unseen power that might be preventing the conclusion of time.
Another option could be that it refers to vacuum energy, an inherent form of energy present throughout space connected with Albert Einstein's cosmological constant.
The theory suggests the universe is expanding more rapidly, yet this has led to confusion among contemporary scientists as its expected intensity does not align with recent measurements.
Dark energy might refer to an evolving energy field or substance, known as quintessence, which permeates all of space and behaves contrary to regular matter. It changes over time and location, contributing to the universe's speeding-up expansion.
NASA has also suggested that dark energy could originate from imperfections in the structure of the cosmos, such as theoretical one-dimensional "creases" known as cosmic strings, which emerged during the early stages of the universe, causing space to expand.
Nevertheless, scientists propose that this might be attributed to an error in Einstein's theory of gravitation, implying that the universe's expansion may not require dark energy at all.
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