Question: Do you think that the universe will collapse in on itself due to gravity slowing down the rate of expansion to a halt or is the universe ever-expanding and will continue until all mass is extremely spar.sely distributed?

Ashley Cadby answered on 30 Jun 2012:

There are a few out comes, the first is that the universe has enough energy to overcome the pull of gravity and so it keeps on expanding. The second is that it doesn’t have enough energy and the university collapses in on it’s self a big crunch. The final possibility is that it’s perfectly matched and the universe reaches an equilibrium. Just by thinking about it, it seems more likely that one of the first two would occur as the final one requires an exact match between the expansion energy and gravity. The first and second options have two outcome rebirth of the universe in the big crunch, or energetic death in the cold blackness of nothingness. I think people who prefer to think the big crunch would happen because it gives people comfort. I think the second one is a nice thought because like life it means you only get one go. I don’t think anyone knows the final fate of the universe, I’d like to think the universe gets only one go at life, like us.