How the universe will end

Without the theory of the Big Bang we wouldn't have much to go on when it comes to estimating what the fate of the universe may be. Thankfully, we can come up with several theories for how the universe might end based on our observations of the cosmos, namely that it appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate, but some theories suggest this won't be the case forever.

For example, the False Vacuum theory states that a so-called 'metastability event' could cause the vacuum of space to "ping" into a lower energy state changing the rules of space, time and matter. If this is the case the entire universe could end at any moment.

Other popular views on when and how the universe will end include the Big Crunch, which is the theory that the universe will eventually start shrinking back to a singularity and re-spawn a new universe, possibly signifying the endless cycle of our universe's life and death.

There is also the Big Rip theory, where the expansion of the universe would continue to accelerate at such a rate that all the matter would be forcibly ripped apart at the seams.

However, the most popular of all current theories is the Big Freeze, which simply dictates that the expansion - and cooling - of the universe will continue unabated until everything in it reaches 'absolute zero'. At this point the universe would cease to move and would become stable, possibly existing forever.

Either that, or our universe could actually be a multiverse and every other possible end to the universe could quite feasibly be happening right now. Since a multiverse of infinite Verses' would require infinite space and energy, the multiverse would never cease to exist.