Scientists reveal the most likely way the universe will end and the exact date it could happen

Scientists believe that the most likely way the universe will end is through something called the Big Crunch — a dramatic reversal of how it all began.

Right now, the universe is constantly expanding. This expansion has been going on since the Big Bang, which happened about 13.8 billion years ago. Scientists think this expansion is being driven by a mysterious force known as dark energy.

Dark energy is still not fully understood, but it’s thought to act like a kind of anti-gravity, pushing everything in the universe farther apart. NASA describes it as possibly having a “negative pressure” that keeps space growing, but admits we still don’t know exactly what it is or how it works.

However, some scientists believe that dark energy might not stay constant forever. If it begins to weaken or fade, the expansion of the universe could slow down and eventually stop. After that, gravity would take over and begin pulling everything back together. This is what scientists call the Big Crunch.

In simple terms, the Big Crunch would be the opposite of the Big Bang. Instead of everything flying apart, all the galaxies, stars, and planets would slowly collapse back toward each other, eventually crushing into a single point — basically hitting the cosmic reset button.

Researchers from Cornell University recently published findings suggesting that this collapse could begin in about seven billion years, once the universe reaches its maximum size. From there, it would take another 26 billion years or so for everything to completely collapse. In total, they predict the universe could end in roughly 33.3 billion years.

They came to this estimate by studying how dark energy behaves over time — whether it’s staying steady, increasing, or decreasing. Using data from telescope surveys, they modeled how the universe’s future might unfold if dark energy fades.

So while this scenario is obviously very far off — billions of years in the future — it offers a fascinating (and slightly unsettling) glimpse at what might eventually happen to everything we know.

As physicist Michael Levi put it, “Whatever the nature of dark energy is, it will shape the future of our universe.” And thanks to modern telescopes and deep-space research, we’re now closer than ever to understanding that future.