Cosmological Fate and the Impermanent Universe
Written by Isla Madden
The explosive birth of the cosmos gave rise to all matter—the first stars, the galaxies, and eventually, life. Our Universe today is the result of ongoing processes of evolution that will continue until the end of time. It could be that the stars burn out and the Universe fades into darkness, or that space rips apart, or that the fabric of our cosmos collapses in on itself and is perpetually renewed, cycling through an eternal loop of creation and destruction. The current state of the cosmos is temporary, and its accelerating expansion is a reminder of the impermanence inherent in all things.
In an instant, space itself expanded, carrying energy and matter outward and setting in motion the processes that would eventually form galaxies, stars, planets, and us. The Big Bang was not an explosion in space — it was an expansion of space itself, and what we consider to be the beginning of everything. The standard model describes the formation and evolution of our cosmos from its earliest moments, tracing the progression of our Universe’s development by looking back in time. The observation of large-scale structures offers clues about the environment in which they emerged, and according to the current cosmological model, our Universe is estimated to be approximately 13.8 billion years old.
A singularity is a theoretical extrapolation of a point in spacetime where the known laws of physics cease to apply and quantities such as density and curvature become infinite. Any description of what preceded the Big Bang remains speculative—hidden behind a veil of uncertainty where physical properties, as we understand them, may not yet have existed. A number of theoretical models propose end states to which the concept of a singularity applies—where conditions again reach extremes at which the laws of physics break down. The Big Crunch is a theory suggesting that the outward expansion of the Universe will slow and reverse under gravity’s pull. Cosmological structures would collapse inward, eventually compressing all matter and energy into an extremely dense state, no different from that which preceded the Big Bang.
The Big Freeze scenario predicts that galaxies will drift farther apart due to accelerating expansion, causing cosmic temperatures to drop. The Universe will trend toward its maximum entropy — a state of no usable energy. As matter becomes dispersed, the Universe reaches a cold, dark, inert equilibrium. The Big Rip hypothesises that dark energy will continue to accelerate the Universe’s expansion, eventually overcoming all forms of gravitational and atomic binding. The fabric of space could stretch infinitely, with galaxies, stars, planets, and atoms being torn apart—ending the Universe in a catastrophic rupture.
The Universe is by nature a product of continuous transformation. The notion of cosmic order is expressed through Anaximander’s concept of the Apeiron, a unified principle from which all things come to be and subsequently return: “Whence things have their origin, thence also their destruction happens, according to necessity; for they give justice and recompense to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time.” All things that come to exist are impermanent, and must in turn pass away. Civilization, our planet, the stars, and the entire Universe will succumb to the rules that nature demands—there are no exceptions to this Universal law.