In the last minutes, stars and planets would be torn apart, and the now-dispersed atoms would be destroyed about 10−19 seconds before the end. At the time the Big Rip occurs, even spacetime itself would be ripped apart and the scale factor would be infinity.
Will the Big Rip happen?
A cosmological model predicts that the expanding Universe could rip itself apart. Too much dark energy could overwhelm the forces holding matter together. The disaster could happen in about 22 billion years.
Why would the big rip happen?
Disconzi's hypothesis is based on existing theories about dark energy, a largely theoretical substance thought to make up 70 percent of the universe's mass. For a Big Rip to occur, dark energy must win in its battle with gravity to such a point where it can rip apart individual atoms.
Can black holes survive the Big Rip?
Although observations cannot rule out a future big rip, some physicists have considered it implausible because it wasn't clear how phantom energy could rip apart black holes, from which nothing can escape.
Can the big rip be stopped?
When the size of the particle horizon becomes smaller than any particular structure, no interaction by any of the fundamental forces can occur between the most remote parts of the structure, and the structure is "ripped apart". The progression of time itself will stop.
How long will the Big Rip last?
If the total amount of dark energy is increasing, the acceleration will also increase, eventually to the point where the very fabric of space-time tears itself apart and the cosmos pops out of existence. One prediction puts this hypothetical “big rip” scenario 22 billion years in the future.
Can space be ripped?
If dark energy remains unchanging, space will expand indefinitely while increasingly isolated stars will slowly fade away and go cold, a phenomenon referred to as Heat Death. And if dark energy keeps accelerating the expansion of the universe, space itself will eventually be torn apart in the Big Rip.
How will the universe end?
The Big Freeze. Astronomers once thought the universe could collapse in a Big Crunch. Now most agree it will end with a Big Freeze. If the expanding universe could not combat the collective inward pull of gravity, it would die in a Big Crunch, like the Big Bang played in reverse.
What is the Big Freeze theory?
Cosmologists have pondered the ultimate fate of the universe, and many have converged on a theory: the “heat death of the universe,” also known as the “Big Freeze.” The Big Freeze theory suggests that, one day, all the energy in the universe will become evenly distributed, preventing any further action from occurring.
Does space have an end?
No, they don't believe there's an end to space. However, we can only see a certain volume of all that's out there. Since the universe is 13.8 billion years old, light from a galaxy more than 13.8 billion light-years away hasn't had time to reach us yet, so we have no way of knowing such a galaxy exists.