The Big Rip: New Theory Ends Universe by Shredding Everything

A rather harrowing new theory about the death of the universe paints a picture of "phantom energy" ripping apart galaxies, stars, planets and eventually every speck of matter in a fantastical end to time. Scientifically it is just about the most repulsive notion ever conceived.

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The question Caldwell and his colleagues posed is, what would happen if the rate of acceleration increased? Their answer is that the eventual, phenomenal pace would overwhelm the normal, trusted effects of gravity right down to the local level. Even the nuclear forces that bind things in the subatomic world will cease to be effective. "The expansion becomes so fast that it literally rips apart all bound objects," Caldwell explained in a telephone interview. "It rips apart clusters of galaxies. It rips apart stars. It rips apart planets and solar systems. And it eventually rips apart all matter."

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Meanwhile, Caldwell's team has provided a precise countdown to total demise. The projected end is, reassuringly, 20 billion years away. If our species survives the next 19 billion years (and there are serious doubts about this, given our Sun's projected fate) here are some signs that scientists of the future will want to look for.

-- A billion years before the end, all galaxies will have receded so far and so fast from our own 
    as to be erased from the sky, as in no longer visible. 


--When the Milky Way begins to fly apart, there are 60 million years left. 


--Planets in our solar system will start to wing away from the Sun three months before the end of time. 


--When Earth explodes, the end is momentarily near. 

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/big_rip_030306.html

the end is HERE!

So we'll have bigger problems to worry about.

usually the endless-expansion scenario calls for a "heat death" where the universe just peters out and nothing significant ever happens again.

But now that expansion appears to be accelerating, they're saying expansion could actually be pretty violent.

What I always say is, I'd rather die in an event of cosmic importance, rather than just kicking off the way everyone else does. A cosmic phase transition or meteor impact would be a hell of a way to go!

all life on Earth will have been extinguised by the extreme heat.

That's also a possibility if you're into string theory and believe the universe is part of a 5-dimensional brane. Trouble is, there may be other branes, and when they collide -- watch out!


'Brane-Storm' Challenges Part of Big Bang Theory
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/bigbang_alternative_010413-1.html