Universe 'death date' is a lot sooner than thought
A team of scientists from the US and China have established that the universe will reach its 'death date' and no longer expand once it turns 33.3 billion years old.
As the universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old at present, it leaves just over 19 billion years to go before everything ends in what boffins describe as a 'Big Crunch'.
Experts at New York's Cornell University and Shanghai's Jiao Tong University have created a new cosmic model that suggests that dark energy - the force believed to be responsible for the universe's expansion - will weaken over time and ultimately succumb to gravity.
Scientists are still attempting to prove that dark energy actually exists but the theory contradicts previous ideas that the universe could continue indefinitely.
NASA's Chelsea Gohd said: "What exactly is dark energy? The short answer is: We don't know. But we do know that it exists, it's making the universe expand at an accelerating rate, and approximately 68.3 to 70 per cent of the universe is dark energy."
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