Everything about The Big Rip totally explained
The
Big Rip is a
cosmological hypothesis first published in 2003, about the
ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, is progressively torn apart by the
expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future. Theoretically, the
scale factor of the universe becomes infinite at a finite time in the future.
The hypothesis relies crucially on the type of
dark energy in the
universe. The key value is the
equation of state w, the
ratio between the dark energy pressure and its
energy density. At
w < − 1, the universe will eventually be pulled apart. Such energy is called
phantom energy, a more extreme form of
quintessence.
In a phantom energy dominated universe the "fabric" of the universe expands at an ever increasing rate. However, this implies that the size of the
observable universe is continually shrinking; the distance to the edge of the observable universe which is moving away at the speed of light from any point gets ever closer. When the size of the
observable universe is smaller than any particular structure, then no interaction between the farthest parts of the structure can occur, neither
gravitational nor
electromagnetic (nor
weak or
strong), and that'll be ripped apart.
First, the
galaxies would be separated from each other. Arguably, this is what is happening right now, with galaxies that move outside the
observable universe (approximately 46.5 billion light years away). About 60 million years before the end, gravity would be too weak to hold the
Milky Way and other individual galaxies together. Approximately three months before the end, the
Solar system will be gravitationally unbound. In the last minutes, stars and planets will be torn apart, and an instant before the end,
atoms will be destroyed.
The authors of this hypothesis, led by
Robert Caldwell of
Dartmouth College, calculate that the end of the universe as we now know it would be in approximately 50 billion years.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Big Rip'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://big_rip.totallyexplained.com">Big Rip Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
