The universe could start SHRINKING ‘remarkably soon’ which could end in the ‘death of time and space’, study claims

A NEW study counters some of science’s greatest minds, providing a glimpse into the ultimate fate of the universe.

The theory posits that space could start shrinking and eventually collapse on itself.

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Thanks to a discovery made by Edwin Hubble, the namesake of Hubble Telescope, scientists agree that the universe has been constantly expanding for all 14billion years of its existence.

Dark energy, a “mysterious” force, drives the universe’s expansion – since the 1990s, its been understood to actually be an accelerant.

Albert Einstein, one of the most revolutionary thinkers on the subject of space and time, put forward the idea that dark energy is a “cosmological constant” – an energy force that propels objects in space away from each other and explains the universe’s infinite expansion.

Researchers published a paper in the accredited Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal that pushes back on the theory, and posits that the universe could stop expanding and eventually constrict.

The researchers’ model suggests that the end of expansion could come in 65million years and the start of contraction in 100million years.

Though this may seem like an overly grand timescale, the authors have a different perspective.

“Going back in time 65 million years, that’s when the Chicxulub asteroid hit the Earth and eliminated the dinosaurs,” a co-author of the study told LiveScience.

“On a cosmic scale, 65 million years is remarkably short,” he added.

Researchers told LiveScience the universe would contract until the weight of it causes it to “crunch” on itself and effectively end the universe’s 14billion-year run.

Alternatively, the universe could shrink to a point, and then reinvent itself with another Big Bang or big “bounce”.

Paul Steinhardt, one of the authors, wrote in a previous study that if the universe repeatedly expands, constricts and then experiences another Big Bang-esque celestial explosion then our universe may not be the first or only universe to have existed.

The untestable theory gives a bit of credence to the notion of a “multi-verse” of infinite universes popularized by new age sci-fi and fantasy content like Rick & Morty or Marvel.

New orbital telescoping technologies will give humans the best chance at getting concrete answers to space’s most abstract problems.

The James Webb Telescope, the most powerful of its kind, is the latest to launch and begin its inspection of the cosmos.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk