The Big Rip
Alex, Lauren and Sam
What is the Big Rip?
- May be the scariest scenario for the end of the world that scientists have come up with.
- The universe is constantly expanding.
- The rate of expansion is itself accelerating. Imagine a car that somehow goes 10 mph faster for every mile it travels.
- Most scientists believe that the amount of matter in the universe will cause the expansion to slow down.
- Some believe that the universe may even contract to a single point causing another Big Bang.
The Big Rip Theory - a theory of the end of the universe based on its increasing expansion rate
Dark Energy
- If there is enough dark energy the universe could expand indefinitely.
- Dark energy, or phantom energy, pressure is greater than energy density.
- This allows the universe to keep expanding/ accelerating outward until it's ripped apart.
- Dark energy comprises 73 per cent of all the energy in the cosmos.
- It exists everywhere in the vacuum of space.
- Eventually scientists may learn how to harness the dark energy.
There's good news!
This apocalyptic occurrence won’t become noticeable for another 20 billion years, and scientists say that by then other events will have already destroyed our solar system.