Did you just reverse the intro?

That was cool!

The Universe is pretty awesome.

With our limited understanding of the Universe, it is possible that it could keep going on forever, but it's also possible that it could end in a final cataclysmic event.　

One such universe-ending theory is called The Big Crunch.

You've heard of The Big Bang, right?

Basically, The Big Crunch is like that, but in reverse.

It's a hypothetical scenario where the Universe would eventually stop expanding like it currently is, and instead contract or collapse into itself, taking everything within the Universe with it… essentially consuming itself.

Not only does that sound pretty heavy metal, but it would be, well, pretty much the end of life as we know it.

However, within this theory, rather than The Big Crunch simply being a dark, bitter end to everything, it could also be a new beginning of sorts.

There's this idea that it could lead to another Big Bang, starting the process all over again.

You could have a virtually never-ending cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, leading to a type of cyclical universe model where, instead of switching everything off, somebody just keeps pushing the reset button.

That's somewhat uplifting I guess, though it does beg the whole “what's the point?” question.

Let's save the existential dread for later! Okay, this is Youtube! Just keep watching! Everything's fine!

All of this is purely hypothetical, of course, because there are still things that we don't really know or completely understand about the Universe.

One of these question marks is called dark energy, which is believed to be about 70% of the composition of the Universe.

Little is really known about dark energy other than that it's some sort of seemingly-invisible space force that's been thought to cause the acceleration of the Universe's expansion.

Dark energy has been mostly thought of as a cosmological constant, which doesn't look good for The Big Crunch theory's validity.

If dark energy is indeed a constant, then the Universe probably wouldn't collapse into itself, but rather keep on expanding.

In fact, recent research that came out earlier this year may take us even further away from The Big Crunch theory.

Using a combination of X-ray and ultraviolet data, astronomers have found evidence that dark energy may be getting stronger with time.

By looking at and comparing the distances of quasars — distant, super-bright black holes—, the researchers found that the universe's expansion rate was faster than expected based on models where dark energy was kept as a constant.

So, if dark energy really is getting stronger, it's way more likely that we would be looking at something called a Big Rip. F's in the chat please!

The Big Rip theory says that the Universe could keep on expanding to the point where it rips itself apart.

We're talking everything from planets, to people, to even atoms themselves getting torn apart by The Big Rip.

This could be the case if dark energy gets stronger and wins the tug-of-war against gravity, which, based off of that recent research, seems to be like a possibility.

Yay! The video is over but the existential dread is back on! Woo!

We're probably gonna be fine though for a very long time. Don't- Don't worry about it!

So are there any other questions about space that you want answered?

Let me know in the comment section below, or tell me, what should I answer next?

Curious to know what would happen if Earth only had one season? Check out this video!

There actually has sort of been an example of this over 200 years ago due to a volcanic eruption.

When a volcano erupts, it releases dust, ash, and sulfur into the atmosphere that could block solar rays and actually cool the planet.

As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!