(Courtesy to Microsoft Encarta for these photographs.)

There are three fates for the Universe. One fate is that the Universe will continually expand forever, another fate is the Big Crunch, and finally slow expansion of the Universe. The following paragraphs will go into detail about each of the fates of the Universe.

If the Big Crunch were to occur, there would have to be vast amounts of matter in the Universe. This is because, all matter contains gravity, and if the gravity is strong enough, it can bend space around. In the Big Crunch, it would be the exact opposite of what happened during the Big Bang. The Universe would start to collapse and eventually only the supermassive black holes at the center the galaxies would remain. All other objects would most likely be broken apart by the radiation and eventually everything disappears. Scientists do not know how much matter there is in the Universe right now, so it is hard to predict the future of the Universe.

Something similar to the Big Crunch is the continual expansion of the Universe, but it is slowed down by the pull of gravity by matter. There would not be enough matter to make the Big Crunch occur but there is enough matter to slow down the expansion of the Universe.

The final fate of the Universe would be the continual expansion of the Universe without anything stopping it. This would be caused by not enough matter in the Universe to bend space around. It is still a grim ending though. Eventually all of the stars would die, all of the gas and dust would be used up, and only the black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs would remain. The black holes then would explode in flashes of radiation. The neutron stars and white dwarfs would turn into black holes and also vanish too. The Universe would only have subatomic particles left and the fate of the Universe is that it would continue expanding forever. There is another detour in this fate of the Universe as well. If the Grand Unified Theory is correct, protons and neutrons are not stable. After there are only black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs left, everything that is made of neutrons and protons will vanish. This is caused by a sudden reappearance of the X-boson. It would change the structure of neutrons and protons so that there would be antimatter. The antimatter and the matter in the neutrons and protons would then annihilate each other. The Universe's fate is unchanged nonetheless. It will continue expanding forever.

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