The Expansion of the Universe

The Fate of the Universe

What is the form of the Universe?

Is it in a steady state, continuous and unchanging throughout all time?
- A steady state universe always looks the same to observers, even though it is expanding outward.
- New matter is constantly being created, and used to form new stars and galaxies which fill the voids left as the previous generations expand away from each other.
Was there a big bang, a time when the whole Universe suddenly came into being? If so,
- Is the Universe open, eternal, forever expanding outwards, doomed to endless cold and emptiness?
- Is the Universe closed, condemned to a final catastrophic collapse when gravity finally wins over all else?

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (1925)

Some say the world will end in fire.
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost, Fire and Ice (1923)

...

listen: there's a hell

of a good universe next door; let's go

e e cummings, pity this busy monster, manunkind (1944)