Page 66 - The Day of Judgment

64 THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

THE END OF THE UNIVERSE: THE CLOSED
UNIVERSE AND OPEN UNIVERSE MODELS

Scientists agree that the Big Bang theory is irrefutable and wholly
based on scientific data. Accordingly, the universe was born out of
the sudden explosion of an infinitely dense point and its subsequent
rapid expansion and growth in space. Over time, it began to cool
and assumed its current shape.
So, for how long will this expansion continue? The greater an
object's mass, the greater its gravitational force—to the extent that
the gravitational force will overwhelm the rate of expansion.
However, if the gravitational force is smaller, expansion cannot be
prevented. According to scientists, if the universe's mass exceeds a
certain limit, the expansion will cease one day and the universe will
collapse back in on itself. This is the closed universe model. But if its
mass is below this limit, the gravitational forces will be unable to
overcome expansion and so it will continue to expand infinitely.
This is the open universe model.
The universe will either close and end, or expand until it is
exhausted and then end, unless Allah causes it to end in another
way. In order to predict by which model the universe will die, we
need to know its total mass.
As determining this is very difficult, scientists have tried to
measure its density rather than its mass, because if the density
reaches a critical point, its gravity may overcome the expansion of
galaxies. Thus, the universe would begin to collapse by sucking in
all of the galaxies. But if its density does not reach this critical value,
the expansion will continue forever, because gravity cannot
overcome the the galaxies' expansion. Scientists setting out from
this premise undertook to discover the end of the universe. They