Apart from the origin of the universe, different theories have also been proposed about the end of the world. The universe is not just made of this visible matter, but a form of mysterious matter called “dark matter” which constitutes almost 73% of the universe’s energy density. In the latest study published on the Arxiv server, scientists have stated that the force of this dark matter is so monstrous that it could soon stop the expansion of the universe, leading to a “long freeze,” slowly sending the cosmos into an eternal sleep.
When conditions are right, the universe will expand and expand before it freezes, and existence collapses. Based on previous studies, cosmologists know that the universe’s expansion is accelerating continuously due to the influence of dark matter. But they still don’t have an exact idea of what this dark matter is. In the findings of the research, scientists have proposed that this so-called “holographic dark matter” could make the universe stretch to a finite size, and then turn everything so cold that it would eventually cease to exist.
According to NASA Space News, the “holographic dark energy model” explains that dark energy is not just a force embedded into the fabric of the universe. It is the innate, phantom force that creates the concepts of time, space, and gravity, without which these concepts are mere illusions. The holographic model also states that the Earth that humans observe is just a hologram projected by a 2D structure, and the expansion of the universe could just be an array of processes unfolding inside this massive 2D object. Everything humans see or experience is an illusion, according to this theory.
As a result, the end of the universe was initially attributed to a process scientists called by names like “Big Freeze,” “Big Crunch,” “Big Rip,” or “Big Chill.” Explaining this process in a TED-Ed video, Venus Keus, from the University of Helsinki, said, “Imagine two objects representing galaxies with a short, tight rubber band holding them together – that’s gravity. Meanwhile, two hooks are pulling them apart – that’s dark energy – and it is expanding the universe.”
She elaborated that if someone copies this system over and over again, the outcome of the battle between these two forces of push and pull will determine how the universe will end. “The Big Freeze scenario is what will happen if the force pulling the objects apart is just strong enough to stretch the rubber band until it loses its elasticity.” If this happens, then stars would just die, galaxies would separate, and the subatomic particles would drift apart, resulting in a dark, cold, freezing, stagnant universe.
“We have demonstrated that, under very general assumptions, the HDE [Holographic dark energy] model can lead naturally to a long freeze, in which the scale factor asymptotically approaches a constant,” study authors concluded in the paper. Fundamentally, the crux of the study is that the universe is a big, ballooning bubble that will eventually pop and burst, which in cosmological terms, would be the last hush before the “Long Freeze,” and all consciousness would dissolve into a silent stillness.
