Way back, lengthy earlier than humankind had dreamed of science, of forces and atoms, of darkish issues and darkish energies filling the void, our deep ancestors seemed up on the splendor of the night time and questioned. How, some youngster should have requested, did all of it start? After which, after some thought: how will all of it finish?
For generations we lacked the instruments to understand the importance of these questions. Beginnings and endings belonged — and to some extent, nonetheless belong — to the realm of the gods; to beings way more highly effective than people can dream of turning into. Solely the gods might create one thing the place there was nothing, solely they may breathe life right into a useless cosmos.
Ultimately, nonetheless, we started to probe extra deeply. We realized of the atoms and their constituents; we discovered methods to control them, and thus harnessed the hidden powers of nature. We uncovered the legal guidelines of gravity, and of the electrical and nuclear forces. We constructed energy stations, unleashed devastating weapons, and reached out to the planets and past.
And but, the massive questions — the way it started, the way it will finish, and why it’s right here in any respect — stay stubbornly elusive. Sure, we have now some solutions — the Massive Bang Idea, as an example, is mostly accepted, and fashionable cosmology has an inexpensive thought of what has occurred since. However a lot continues to be mysterious.
Certainly, the reasons dreamed up by fashionable cosmology depend on two massive unknowns: darkish matter and darkish power. Now we have no actual thought of the character of those two entities. And but with out them, it appears galaxies wouldn’t kind or maintain collectively, stars wouldn’t fill the skies, and life would by no means have gotten began. There would have been, in different phrases, no actual starting.
What these two mysteries imply for the long run, nonetheless, is even tougher to say. And not using a correct understanding of darkish power, we can not say if the universe will develop ceaselessly or finally collapse. We have no idea if the celebs and galaxies will fade away, or if the whole lot will at some point be reborn in a second massive bang.
Put merely, we nonetheless have no idea the way it will all finish.
At first, the query of endings gave the impression to be one in every of gravity.
