We could go out with a crunch, and not a bang.
Contrary to popular belief, our universe may not be constantly expanding after all. A groundbreaking study by South Korean researchers suggests that dark energy may be causing thxe cosmos to contract — and that it could ultimately lead to a terrifying phenomenon known as the “Big Crunch.”
“The fate of the universe will change,” lead researcher Professor Young Wook Lee of Yonsei University in Seoul, dramatically told the BBC.
In layperson’s terms, the universe could be running out of gas, eventually leading to a gravitational collapse in which all the galaxies get compacted together.
The alarming study, published in the journal Monthly Notices Of the Royal Astronomical Society, cast doubts on age-old theories surrounding the fate of the Universe.
It’s believed that the universe began with the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago. For centuries, it was assumed that the universe was subsequently decelerating.
Then in 1998, scientists discovered evidence for dark energy, a mysterious force that accelerated the expansion of the universe. Analysis of bright exploding stars called supernovas was believed to show that distant galaxies weren’t slowing, but rather speeding away from each other and could potentially render atoms apart in a catastrophic event known as a “Big Rip.”
However, according to the new research, dark energy is rapidly changing and the universe could conversely be running out of steam.
“Our study shows that the universe has already entered a phase of decelerated expansion at the present epoch and that dark energy evolves with time much more rapidly than previously thought,” said Professor Lee, per a scientific release. “If these results are confirmed, it would mark a major paradigm shift in cosmology since the discovery of dark energy 27 years ago.”
They came to this conclusion by examining the brightness of Type IA supernovas, dubbed “standard candles” because they illuminated cosmic distances like celestial mile markers.
If these death stars appeared faint, they were far away, essentially illustrating that the Universe was expanding due to dark energy propulsion.
However, by analyzing 300 host galaxies, Lee and his team discovered that the supernovas’ luminosity was more closely associated with their stars’ age before the explosion rather than their distance.
Specifically, older stellar entities created brighter bangs, while younger ones were systematically dimmer.
In effect, they refuted the suggestion that dark energy is a constant force, proving that it can conversely fade over time.
The research was supported by a new model favored by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) — an instrument in the Arizona desert that was designed to analyze dark energy. It aligned perfectly with data from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)– the afterglow of the Big Bang — and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations or BAO — ancient sound waves frozen in space.
“Our analysis shows that the universe has already entered a decelerating phase today,” said Lee.
Thankfully, this intergalactic Ragnarok won’t likely happen within our lifetimes. Cosmologists at Cornell University predict that the end of the universe is 19.5 billion years away.
To confirm the results, the Yonsei squad is carrying out an “evolution-free test” that centers around supernova in galaxies that are the same age.
The verdict will likely come to light via the, Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which is equipped with the world’s most powerful digital camera, and is expected to discover 20,000 new supernova hosts over the next half-decade.