Relax! The end is not in sight

Cosmologists have had a bit of good news — they are just about twice as certain as they were before that the universe is not going to be ripped apart. But if we really want to know what will happen, the US must continue to care for the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, or build a replacement soon, the researchers said. The team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said they had found more evidence about a mysterious force.

Discovered only six years ago, dark energy may make up 70 pc of the universe. It holds the key to the future of the universe, depending on how strong and how permanent it is. One hope is that it is the explanation for Einstein’s theoretical cosmological constant, a number that will predict whether the universe will collapse in a ‘‘big crunch’’, be completely blown apart in a ‘‘big rip’’ or just drift until the galaxies are so far apart that they cannot be seen.

‘‘Right now we’re about twice as confident than before that Einstein’s cosmological constant is real, or at least dark energy does not appear to be changing fast enough (if at all) to cause an end to the universe anytime soon,’’ said Institute’s Adam Reiss.

While this sounds more pleasant than a big crunch or a big rip, it also means a cold, dark and lonely future. Not that this will matter to humans, as it is an estimated 55 billion years off. —(Reuters)