Boffins have put out a start date on when the universe will come to an end and collapse in on itself in a process opposite to the Big Bang, called the 'Big Crunch'

11:40, 21 Jul 2025

Boffins believe the universe will come to an end in a process opposite to that of the Big Bang – they have called the Big Crunch(Image: NASA, ESA/Hubble, HST Frontier Fields)

Boffins believe the universe will come to an end in a terrifying cosmic collapse as it folds in on itself and becomes a “furnace of this cosmic hell”.

According to the “Big Crunch” theory, experts believe the universe will come to a close in one big final cataclysmic implosion, in a process which is the opposite of the “Big Bang”. They say that space itself will contract into a scorching hot dense area as the pressure of the universe increases and temperatures skyrocket to astronomical levels.

Although the universe coming to an end as a result of the Big Crunch is only a theory, scientists looking at new measurements of “Dark Energy” have warned that the cataclysmic crunch is the most likely outcome for our universe.

Boffins believe space itself will fold in on itself leaving the final frontier to become a furious hell-like furnace(Image: Getty Images)

Eggheads at Cornell University have unveiled when they believe the process will begin and what exactly will happen in this astronomical apocalypse.

Within a few million years of the crunch, the universe would be as hot as the surface of the sun as it folds into a furious cosmic inferno. Academics said that as the universe’s temperature continues to rise it would eventually peak at “Planck temperature” – the highest possible temperature according to scientific models.

Professor Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist at Cornell University, has described what the universe would look like during the final days. Despite the hellish temperatures, he said that we will all be dead long before the universe ever reaches this point.

He said: “Needless to say, all humans will burn up in the furnace of this cosmic hell.”

During the Big Crunch boffins believe the universe will become hotter than the surface of the sun(Image: DESI collaboration and KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor)

Professor Henry Tye, a leading cosmologist from Cornell University, also gave a predicted date for when the process will start. He said: 'We calculate that this will lead to a Big Crunch about 19.5 billion years from now.

“Knowing that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years, one obtains that the lifespan is 33.3 billion years.”

Despite the Big Crunch being an apocalyptic event which would turn the universe into a sizzling inferno, Prof Tye warned that the Earth will face another doomsday scenario billions of years beforehand.

Boffins have put a start date on when the end of the universe will begin(Image: NASA/WMAP)

He said: “Before the big crunch, at about five billion years from now, the sun will use up its fuel and start growing dramatically.

"Its outer layers will expand until they engulf much of the solar system, as it becomes what astronomers call a red giant. Eventually, it fades to a tiny white dwarf.

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“To survive, human beings have to move to the edge of our solar system or beyond. We have a few billion years' time to prepare for that trip.”