Before we can speculate on the fate of the universe, we must first look back to how it began. The modern version of the 'Big Bang' theory is that a massive explosion created all the mass and energy in the universe, and also the fabric of time-space, which inflated rapidly after the big bang but then slowed down and the universe cooled down (Seife, 2237). The temperature dropped within minutes, and free-roaming quarks formed protons and neutrons, some of which coalesced into the nuclei of simple elements. When electrons tried to coalesce with nuclei, they would be forced away by flying photons, but these were quickly bounded off other atoms trying to form. Because of all these flying particles, light stayed trapped in a kind of plasma around all these atoms for roughly 300,000 years after the big bang. Finally, everything cooled off enough because of the expansion of the universe for electrons to combine with nuclei, and light was freed, causing the entire universe to glow.
In the mid-1960s, scientists discovered a cosmic microwave background, and in 1965 two scientists from Bell Telephone laboratories, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, earned the Nobel Prize for discovering that stubborn static in their microwave antennae was the afterglow of the big bang (Seife 2237). This gave credence to the 'Big Bang theory, since if it had taken place, microwave radiation from the explosion should still be detectable. The discovery by Penzias and Wilson put to rest the competing theory of 'steady stateÆ cosmology which stated that the universe was continuously under construction, and that new matter was added to fill voids left be parting galaxies. The cosmic-microwave background theory is based on the concept that, as the universe expanded, the original ultrahigh-energy gamma rays became stretched into xrays, then into visible light, and finally, after 15 billion years, have produced microwaves. This cosmic-microwave background (CMB...