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Old 07-30-2010, 04:08 AM   #20 (permalink)
midnight rain
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Oh, and back to the topic of space and the Universe for a second. One theory that is recognized as a possible ending to the Universe is the "Big Crunch", which is basically the reverse of the big bang. Using this theory, one can postulate that the Universe has been on a never ending cycle of Big Bang/Crunches.

Quote:
The Big Crunch theory is a symmetric view of the ultimate fate of the Universe . Just as the Big Bang started a cosmological expansion, this theory postulates that the average density of the universe is enough to stop its expansion and begin contracting. The end result is unknown; a simple extrapolation would have all the matter and space-time in the universe collapse into a dimensionless singularity, but at these scales unknown quantum effects need to be considered (See Quantum gravity).
This scenario allows the Big Bang to have been immediately preceded by the Big Crunch of a preceding universe. If this occurs repeatedly, we have an oscillatory universe. The universe could then consist of an infinite sequence of finite universes, each finite universe ending with a Big Crunch that is also the Big Bang of the next universe. Theoretically, the oscillating universe could not be reconciled with the second law of thermodynamics: entropy would build up from oscillation to oscillation and cause heat death. Other measurements suggested the universe is not closed. These arguments caused cosmologists to abandon the oscillating universe model. A somewhat similar idea is embraced by the cyclic model, but this idea evades heat death, because of an expansion of the branes that dilutes entropy accumulated in the previous cycle.


Also, random fun fact: some of what you hear in static is actually the echo of the big bang.
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