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Originally Posted by toretorden
Astronomy : I have a question for someone who might know some astronomy. Does anyone know theoretically what should happen to the universe billions of years down the line? I think I read once that black holes will swallow all matter and then the black holes will melt together to form one super-black hole .. but that even this one will "evaporate", eventually leaving a universe with nothing but a kind of "background radiation" somewhere down the line.
Is this really a likely course of events or does popular scientific theory predict a different scenario?
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The universe has been described as being like a gigantic (or at least extremely big) expanding elastic band because the universe has been constantly expanding since the 'big bang'.
What would happen when the universe reached it's furthest possible extent?
Would it tear and disintegrate, or more interestingly, would it begin to retract causing the universe to reverse in direction and return to it's original state?
And if this was the case, then would time travel backwards and how would it effect us as humans?
Would we be born old and gradually get younger (as in the curious case of Benjamin whatsisname) until we were born, thus ending our life?
Or, if that wasn't the case and it only effected those who were around at the time, would we remember what had happened, say 5 years previously?
And would we be able to apply our knowledge of that to benefit us personally?
Or, would time continue in a straight line (if it does at all) and we live out our lives normally as the universe slowly gets smaller?